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 These
items are commonly purchased by families like yours everyday. You take
them home, you eat the goodies inside and then you are left with empty
containers. Now what should you do with them? |
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Recycle them! If you’re unsure if the product is recyclable, look at the bottom. If they’re recyclable, there will be a recycle symbol with chasing arrows and a #1-#7. A #6 is Styrofoam and is NOT recyclable. Each one of these numbers means something: Click here to learn more.
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 Once
we collect your recycle material from your cart curbside, it is taken to
Pacific Rim Recycling for sorting and processing. |
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After the recycle material has been dumped
on the concrete pad, a loader moves material onto the first conveyor belt.
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 The
recyclable material is conveyed 14 feet off the ground to the pre-sort work
station where employees remove garbage, non-recyclable items and large pieces
of cardboard before the remaining material reaches the screens. |
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 The
first screen removes glass. The next screen lifts the paper (flats) over
the top while the food and beverage containers (rounds) roll off the bottom.
The paper is conveyed directly to the baler where it is packaged and ready
to sell to the end user who makes new paper. |
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 After
the materials are sorted into their individual container type, they are
taken to the packaging area. The materials are dumped on the floor and pushed
onto a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt moves the materials inside a machine,
called a baler, where they are formed into squares, or bales, and secured
with thick wire. |
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 The
resulting bales are stacked and ready for shipment to market. The bales
are loaded onto large truck trailers and taken to companies who buy the
material and recycle it into new items, like new cereal boxes or plastic
beverage containers! Glass is the only item not baled - what a mess that
would be! |
Do
you wonder what happens to recycle material after it gets picked up at
the curb or how recycle material gets sorted when you mix it all together?
Well, we’re going to tell you. Allied Waste takes some of its material
to Pacific Rim Recycling in Benicia. Pacific Rim Recycling is a materials
recovery facility (MRF) and has machines that sort the recycling. Workers
pull out unwanted materials like garbage, plastic bags and other non-recyclable
items, with additional processing done using conveyor belts, screens,
magnets, balers and compactors. Take a tour of Pacific Rim Recycling and
see how your recycling is sorted, baled and sold to companies who will
make the USED items into brand NEW items!
The
food and beverage containers are conveyed to the container sort area where
employees separate out the plastics, and magnets remove the tin cans and
aluminum. 
