Many people have heard of recycling processing facilities like The American Recycling Center, but wonder exactly what process their recyclable items go through in order to be made into new, recycled goods.
We would like to answer that question by taking you on a virtual tour through each of the steps your recyclables take at the American Recycling Center. From the moment the truck arrives, to the moment those items are baled and ready to be sold, this is your backstage pass to the entire sorting and processing journey.
* Although all recycling processing facilities follow a similar process, the below steps are the specific order that The American Recycling Center takes to process the material we receive. We understand that each facility varies slightly in their process.
Step 1: Tipping Floor
When trucks arrive at the American Recycling Center, they are first weighed on a scale to record the total weight of the recyclable material they are carrying. They then proceed to a large concrete floor, where they dump out all of the recyclables from the back of the truck into a massive pile of unsorted material on the ground in this area, known as the tipping floor.
To see this process in action, click here
After the tipping floor, materials are fed onto the first sorting station on a series of conveyor belts called the pre-sort station. Here, recycling sorters manually remove items too large to be separated by the sorting equipment. They also remove materials that contaminate the sorting process or damage the equipment; including plastic bags and films, bagged shredded paper, sharp objects, tires, wires or simply unrecyclable trash.
To see this process in action, click here
*Glass Sorting:
Glass is removed from the sorting equipment early in the process for several reasons. Glass is damaging, dirty and heavy. For these reasons, glass is a very difficult material to recycle.
Step 4: Steel Sorting
At this point in the sorting process, the stream (which contains mainly containers) continues on the conveyer belts to a section that lies underneath a large rotating overhead magnet. All ferrous metals (any metal containing iron), like steel and tin cans, get pulled up and out of the material stream because of their magnetic properties. At the end of the magnet's rotation, the bi-metal steel containers and other materials made from ferrous metals drop off the magnet and into a bunker where they wait to be baled.
To see this process in action, click here
Step 5: Optical Sorting
Next on the sorting line is a set of optical sorters, which are
highly advanced machines that scan, identify and sort specific materials.
Essentially a "robot eye", the optical sorter can separate these
materials thousands of times faster and more efficiently than by manual means.
They are programmed to recognize different materials that appear
in the stream at this stage of the process: namely PET plastic containers (such
as water and soda bottles), HDPE natural plastic containers (such as milk
jugs), HDPE colored plastic containers (such as detergent and lotion bottles)
and all manner of cartons.
When the optical sorter scans a particular item, it recognizes what material it is and a targeted jet of air shoots out beneath the item, shooting it into its own bunker with the other materials of its kind, where they also wait to be bailed.
To see this process in action, click here
When the optical sorter scans a particular item, it recognizes what material it is and a targeted jet of air shoots out beneath the item, shooting it into its own bunker with the other materials of its kind, where they also wait to be bailed.
To see this process in action, click here
Step 6: Aluminum Sorting
The material stream continues on to a special conveyor belt built
for sorting aluminum. A large rotor drum is located at the end of this
conveyor, underneath the belt. When the magnets located within this drum rotate
at high speeds, they create an energy field known as an eddy current. As the
material stream travels over this electromagnetic drum, the energy field
propels nonferrous metals, like aluminum, out of the material stream and into a
bunker for baling.
To see this process in action click here
To see this process in action click here
Bailing
Once the materials have been sorted and separated by the above processes, they are fed into one of two bailing machines; one for lighter, easier to compress fibers (paper and cardboard) and one for denser, heavier materials like aluminum and steel.
The bailers press the material together very tightly and expel the bales, which are large blocks of each material type.
Once the materials are baled, they are stacked and stored where they wait to be purchased and shipped all over America and the world to be made into new, recycled goods.
