07/20/23 Tour of Our Material Recovery Facility at Pioneer Recycling

Want to know where your recycling materials go once they’re in your roll cart?

Follow along on a tour of our Material Recovery Facility (MRF) - Pioneer Recycling, who takes in all the mixed recycling we collect at the curb and sorts it to be delivered to the end recycling markets.

The importance of recycling the appropriate materials curbside can be shown in the difficulty of removing products in the sorting line. There is a combination of robotics and incredible staffing that takes out unacceptable materials one-by-one. Any sort of contamination causes issues for not only the MRF, but the end recycling market the material is going to.

This summer, the market for recyclables is significantly down. Every type of recyclable except for corrugated cardboard has decreased for July & they’re continuing to decline through the month. Most of the end markets are domestic (which is important!), but due to demand lessening there is less opportunity for those items to stay local. Plastics are the biggest issue, due to producers having an oversupply of raw material and lack of demand.

We at NLSS highly recommend remembering the three R’s: Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. This is the best way to make sustainable choices that are long-lasting!