A materials recovery facility or materials reclamation facility (MRF -- pronounced "murf") is a specialized plant that receives, separates and prepares recyclable materials for marketing to end-user manufacturers. Generally, there are two types - clean and dirty MRF's.

Clean MRF

A clean materials recovery facility, where different materials are separated for recycling

A clean MRF accepts recyclable materials that have been collected in comingled wastes from kerbside collection separated at source from municipal solid waste generated by either residential or commercial sources. There are a variety of clean MRF's. The most common currently are 2-stream MRF's, where source-separated recyclables are delivered in the form of a mixed food and beverage container stream (typically glass, ferrous metal, aluminum and other non-ferrous metals, PET [No.1] and HDPE [No.2] plastics) and a mixed paper stream. Image File history File linksMetadata Material_recovery_facility_2004-03-24. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Material_recovery_facility_2004-03-24. ... The international recycling symbol. ... Kerbside collection (curbside collection US) is the strategy of local authorities to collect recyclable resources from the household alongside normal mixed waste collections. ... cheese pizzas are those by-productss which include milk and all calcium derivatives. ... Aluminum is a soft and lightweight metal with a dull silvery appearance, due to a thin layer of oxidation that forms quickly when it is exposed to air. ... Polyethylene terephthalate (aka PET, PETE or the obsolete PETP or PET-P) is a thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family that produced by the chemical industry and is used in synthetic fibers; beverage, food and other liquid containers; thermoforming applications; and engineering resins often in combination with glass fiber. ... HDPE has SPI resin ID code 2 High-density polyethylene (HDPE) is a polyethylene thermoplastic made from petroleum. ...

The composition of the mixed paper stream can vary considerably, depending on the marketing arrangements that are available to the MRF operator. A typical mixed paper stream will consist of old newspapers with their inserts, old magazines and kraft (brown) paper bags. Some MRF's are able to handle a mixed paper stream consisting of a wider variety of paper types that includes old corrugated, junk mail, telephone books and even paperboard.

Dirty MRF

ArrowBio wet materials recovery facility

A dirty MRF accepts a mixed solid waste stream and then proceeds to separate out designated recyclable materials through a combination of manual and mechanical sorting. The sorted recyclable materials may undergo further processing required to meet technical specifications established by end-markets while the balance of the mixed waste stream is sent to a disposal facility such as a landfill. Image File history File links MBT_sorting. ... Image File history File links MBT_sorting. ... ArrowBio is a variant technology of mechanical biological treatment for waste. ...

The percentage of residuals (unrecoverable recyclable or non-program materials) from a properly operated clean MRF supported by an effective public outreach and education program should not exceed 10% by weight of the total delivered stream and in many cases it can be significantly below 5%^{[citation needed]}. A dirty MRF recovers between 5% and 45%^{[citation needed]} of the incoming material as recyclables, then the remainder is landfilled or otherwise disposed.

Wet MRF

New mechanical biological treatment technologies such as the ArrowBio Process are now beginning to utilise wet MRFs^[1]. This combines a dirty MRF with water which acts to density separate and clean the output streams. It also hydrocrushes and dissolves biodegradable organics in solution to make them suitable for anaerobic digestion. Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) is a form of waste processing. ... Anaerobic digestion is the breakdown of organic matter by bacteria in the absence of oxygen. ...

See also

• Kerbside collection
• List of waste treatment technologies
• Mechanical biological treatment

Kerbside collection (curbside collection US) is the strategy of local authorities to collect recyclable resources from the household alongside normal mixed waste collections. ... The following page contains a list of different forms of solid waste treatment technologies and facilities employed in waste management infrastructure. ... Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) is a form of waste processing. ...

External links

• [1]Diagram of MRF process

References

1. ^ ArrowBio Process Finstein, M. S., Zadik, Y., Marshall, A. T. & Brody, D. (2004) The ArrowBio Process for Mixed Municipal Solid Waste – Responses to “Requests for Information”, Proceedings for Biodegradable and Residual Waste Management, Proceedings. (Eds. E. K. Papadimitriou & E. I. Stentiford), Technology and Service Providers Forum, p. 407-413