Great Forest recently visited Metropolitan Recycling, a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Brooklyn to see this hauler’s recycling process in action. Over 15,000 tons of material are processed each month at Metropolitan‘s three facilities.
We watched collected recyclables being fed onto a conveyor belt, where workers sorted and removed contaminants, preparing the materials to be baled into gigantic cubes of paper, cardboard and glass/metal/plastic. The bales are what gets sent to manufacturers or recyclers.
We saw a lot of clean recyclable material at the facility, which means many of you are doing your part in the office, by properly separating recycling from trash. This is important because bags of recycling that are too contaminated cannot be processed and may end up in the landfill. Contaminated recyclables could also mean higher recycling costs down the line because of China’s Green Fence, which was enacted last year.
Here are some photos from our visit.
Related: Where Do Your Recyclables go? (See VIDEO of what happens at an MRF)