A group of First Unitarian Humanist and Green Sanctuary folks toured Metro Waste’s recycling facility on September 20th. Following is information and thoughts about the tour.
There are separate sites for recycling, yard waste, garbage, construction debris, and hazardous waste. Check out Waste Management’s website. We should help divert as much as we can from landfills. Green Sanctuary supports this concept because it’s good for our planet.
The MRF changes its guidelines depending upon buyers for its recycled products. Check out the MRF website for their current guidelines. Waste Management uses single stream technology. Everything is dumped from your tote into a truck and delivered to the MRF. At the facility, it’s separated through a series of conveyor belts and stations into its separate components, baled, and sold to buyers. Watch this video to see the recycling facility. Tours are welcome.
Ron Heideman
Tour Thoughts from Matthew Tow
I had the honor of touring the new recycling facility in Grimes. I’d recommend manually finding the address on your phone, as Google maps may take you one wrong turn away from where you need to go. It’s worth the work, though, as it’s quite an incredible place! We had an excellent presentation given to us by one of their staff, including a Q&A session. Afterwards, we were led through the maze of the recycling center itself. It was pretty amazing to see how big everything is and the state-of-the-art process on how it’s all sorted and shipped. I recommend this tour to anyone!
Tour Thoughts from Donald Shepherd
The Metro Waste Authority recycling authority facility sorts paper, aluminum, glass, and some forms of plastic. It bails these up for sale to various customers sending anything else to the land fill. It does not make a profit and is not expected to do so for around seven years. It is also involved in educating the public through talks and tours. It is capable of absorbing small impurities such as plastic windows in envelopes and can labels. It could take more material than is on its list of acceptable material but does not want to be overwhelmed. It has operated for slightly less than a year and was built with ample space for expansion.