Waste Management Single-Stream Recycling: Take a tour of our Philadelphia MRF

[MrLazzyG]

5:03 you missed the aluminium can :D

[tylertalkstrash]

yayyyy I love Edgar! He gave a great tour of the facility. I highly urge everyone to check out a MRF and to take their kids. The sheer volume of stuff that these facilities process is crazy.

[ILuvCaroline]

So they basically sell our trash to other people to make a profit? I thought the point of recycling centers was to turn raw materials into new materials. So we are better off reusing our products instead of giving them to you to profit off of.

[hunthicks]

@ILuvCaroline They sell the materials to companies which recycle them into new products. How can't you figure that out?

[ILuvCaroline]

@hunthicks But they still make money off of our trash is the point I am trying to get across. Instead of collecting the trash and passing it on to someone else they can turn the raw materials into new products. There is a profit in it for them.

[hunthicks]

@ILuvCaroline While individual companies and people may commit to recycling for moral reasons, our society is money based. Yes, the municipalities are making money off our trash.(Nova Scotia charges a fee on all electronics at time of purchase, requires them to be taken to special depots for disposal and then sells the recycled parts as well!) That's not really a bad thing, to turn a cities garbage into an income source. In my opinion it's a win-win and way better for the environment.

[hunthicks]

@ILuvCaroline And, the reason municipalities don't build factories to process the recycled materials into new products? The millions of dollars in capital they'd need for startup, and the fact the world simply doesn't need every city to have their own facilities. It makes more sense for companies that use the products to purchase them and have them shipped in.

[TurboGSR96]

@ILuvCaroline having a moment? WM has nothing to do with turning recyclables into new material, they simply collect, sort and package for companies to purchase to turn into something new.

[150ftrek]

so what happens if it rains on the reclebles and they get soaking wet? how does the paper get recycled then? thanks

[tylertalkstrash]

@150ftrek It gets recycled although the quality isn't quite as good.

[hunthicks]

@150ftrek If it's wet the system generally rejects it, and it ends up in a landfill. Being easily biodegradable, it's not a huge deal. The real items that need to be recycled are plastic, glass and metals.

[ShaneMSnyder]

@150ftrek Wetting down the paper is how paper is recycled so it's not a big deal.