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What happens to the materials
that go in your yellow bin for recycling?

Once received at the Materials Recycling Facility, (MRF) recyclables are pushed with a front end loader from the receival area onto a chain conveyor that transfers the recyclables from ground level to operating level where the sorting commences:

1. Pre-Sort Room– MRF sorters remove large waste items and sort large cardboard. Cardboard is separated onto conveyors to bypass the sorting equipment so that it works more efficiently. Large cardboard combines back with other cardboard products at the end of the process. 

2. Trommel– rotates the recyclables and separates containers (glass bottles, steel cans, aluminium cans, rigid plastics) from paper. Containers then travel over Bounce Conveyors to separate residual paper from the containers stream to present a container rich stream to the MRF sorters.

3. Container Sorting Room– PET (RC1)(CDL & non-deposit), HDPE (RC2), mixed plastics (RC 3-5), glass bottles and jars (CDL & non CDL) are separated into different holding bunkers by the MRF sorters ready for a quality check.

4. Screening & Quality Check– the separated container products are screened, quality checked and bulked up ready for transport to end markets to be recycled back into products.

5. Steel cans are removed by an electro magnet, transferred to a steel baler and baled ready for transport to downstream processors to be made back into steel products.

6. Aluminium products are removed by an eddy current (drink cans, deodorant cans, aluminium trays and foil) and blown into cages ready for a secondary sort into beer cans, soft drink cans and other aluminium products.

7. Ballistic separators clean up the paper stream by separating any residual containers, glass fines, dirt, bottle tops and organics away from the paper stream which is then transferred to the Quality Sort Paper Room.

8. Quality Sort Paper Room– MRF staff remove any contamination left in the paper and cardboard stream so that it can be baled ready for transport and recycling back into paper and cardboard products

Once the different material streams; plastics, cardboard, paper, steel/tin, aluminium and glass are separated from other materials they and baled or placed in containers.  Recycled materials are then sold just as raw materials are and transported to various recycling facilities to be remanufactured into new products.