Materials Recycling Facility - video transcript

This transcript is for the Materials Recycling Facility video on the preparing and separating waste for recycling page.

This facility is a prime example of how Viridor recovers valuable resources from recyclable materials.

[Title card: Materials Recycling Facility  (MRF)]

It operates to the highest standards of quality and efficiency, at the same time serving the needs of about a quarter of a million homes.

it turns this [mixed recyclables] into this [neatly bundled and sorted recyclables]. How do they do it?

Well it all happens here, as the mixed material sets off on its travels, it's sorted and divided in different ways.

In the pre-sort cabin, large cardboard is separated out for recycling and any items that are not suitable for recycling at this plant are removed.

Then the co-mingled recyclables are fed into a series of metal drums called trummels where it's spun and sorted by size.

At this stage good quality paper is extracted for recycling and items smaller that a matchbox are collected for further processing.

The remaining materials then travel through to a ballistic separator which separates items by weight and shape.

Flat paper walks to the top and plastics and cans fall to the bottom.

The sorted material passes through a sorting cabin where quality control is assured by operators.

Then magnets come into force picking out steel cans, before an Eddy current swirls the aluminium cans to one side and into a separate sorting channel.

Next a sophisticated optical device scans and recognises different types of plastic which are blown into their own bunkers.

By now each item has finished its journey through the MRF and what was once regarded as rubbish has been efficiently separated into different material types ready for recycling.

A final quality control is then completed. Everything is then ready to be compacted into bales and secured by wire and the bales are stacked and ready for collection.

When the bales leave the site, they are photographed and  inventoried for the customer before delivery or shipping overseas.

It's a great story, with yesterday's waste being converted into useful source material for the products of tomorrow.

[Images of cardboard boxes, cans, cars and an aeroplane]

[Recycle more waste less]

[Viridor]