Follow your recyclables from the curb to the Materials Recovery Facility:
When your recyclables leave your curb, they are co-mingled in the collection truck and shipped to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). At the MRF, the materials are separated into different material categories for sale on the market to recycling processors.
The materials are dumped on the floor of the MRF and they move up a conveyer belt for manual sorting.
Materials are further sorted through a series of mechanical equipment.
Once the material is separated, it is bailed into large blocks. This particular photo is of opaque plastic cartons.
And this block of bailed aluminum cans.
These materials are sold to manufacturers who will use these recycled materials in their manufacturing process.