How Does It Happen

How is the material separation accomplished at the recycling facility?

• When the recycle route has been completed, the collection vehicle delivers the contents to the facility located at 2401 S. Laflin, in Chicago.
• The collection vehicle is weighed on a scale and the contents are dumped onto the sorting floor.
• The empty vehicle is then scaled out and at that point we can determine the net weight of the trucks contents.
• The collected material dumped on the sorting floor is then spread out by a wheel loader and the load is evaluated and given a grade of recyclable content.
• Contents are then pushed by the wheel loader on to a conveyor belt.
• The conveyor belt lifts the recyclable material to an elevated sorting system.
• The elevated sorting system has 20 laborers (10 on each side) picking out the various commodities in the compactor load.
• Underneath the elevated sorting system are collection bins with the various commodities that have been source separated.
• Materials that cannot be recycled are conveyed into a trash compactor that is delivered to a landfill.
• The source separated commodities are then individually baled or processed.
• The bales or processed materials are then loaded on trailers to be transported to the recycling mills.
• Mills receive trailer loads of baled and processed material and recycle the contents into new commodities.

After processing, where does the recycled material go?

The Materials                                     Transferred to                                    Create:                     

Aluminum                                           Anheiser Busch                                 New Aluminum

Glass                                                   Strategic Materials                           New Glass

Metals                                                 General Iron                                       Steel

Plastics                                               Mega Max                                           New Plastic

Plastics                                               Mohawk Plastic                                 Carpeting

Cardboard                                          Bay Fiber Paper Mill                          Kraft Paper

White Paper                                       International Paper                           Tissue Paper

Newspaper                                         SP Newsprint                                     Newspaper

Mixed Paper                                       Georgia Pacific                                    Bond Paper