Due to an increase in environmental awareness, recycling has become more popular in recent years. Recycling plants are facilities where recyclable materials are processed into new products or raw materials. Recently we have seen an increase in recycling businesses choosing to specialize in specific commodities to improve their processes and technologies.
Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs)
These plants focus on sorting recyclable materials by type and preparing them for sale to manufacturers. MRFs typically process mixed recyclables, which are sorted by workers into different commodity types including scrap metal, paper & cardboard, plastics, and glass.
Commodity Processing Facilities (CPFs)
These plants purchase sorted, single-stream recyclables and further process them into new commodities. For example, a CPF might turn sorted aluminum cans into ingots for companies that make aluminum products.
Waste-to-Energy Facilities (WTEs)
WTEs burn municipal solid waste to generate electricity. Some WTEs are able to recover metals from the ash residue left after combustion.
Specialist Recyclers
Specialist recyclers focus on recycling a specific type of material with more efficiency than mixed recycling facilities, such as scrap metal, e-waste, tires, paper, electronics, bottles, plastics, glass, and more.