Cans, and Cardboard, and Bottles – OH MY!
The next time you hear stories about what happens to your
recycling after it’s collected, please consider how most rumors
begin – usually from misinformation. We offer the following,
with the great photos taken by John Daley Jr., in the hopes
of bringing more clarity to our recycling story. What we (the
District and the residents) do in LaPorte County really does
matter.
On September 7th, a group from LaPorte and Porter counties
gathered for a bus ride to Homewood, Illinois, where much
of our recycling is taken for baling and distribution. This
day of discovery was provided by our contract recycling hauler,
Able Disposal with Mr. Jim Smith as our official guide.
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This is where it all begins. |
We all met at the offices of Able Disposal in Chesterton
for a look around their tipping floor prior to boarding the
bus. Mr. Smith provided an informative walk through the Able
facility (complete with hard hats and vests) and explained
the basics about where our recycling begins its journey after
curbside pick up. He stated that 963 tons of co-mingled recycling
materials were shipped from the Able Transfer facility to
the Homewood Disposal’s Diversified Recycling material recovery
facility (MRF) in the past month of August. Then we were off
to Homewood.
As we arrived at Homewood, the huge area of the recycling
facility was quite apparent. Once again, fitted with hard
hats, we began the tour. The wonderful photos provided here
cannot even begin to display the enormity of this operation.
The sorting, baling, and stacking prior to final shipping
are all part of daily operation. Workers continued their jobs
as we walked through; they never seemed to stop. Their job
was to hand sort the material that could not be screened or
sorted by magnets.
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These are the 1000 lb. bales of
stacked cans. |
One of the line sort areas only picked through the paper,
cardboard, bonded office paper, magazines and cereal boxes
and sorted the material onto an awaiting conveyor line that
would later bale the material for shipment for processing.
Another sort area picked and sorted only through the various
plastics that also would be baled and shipped for processing.
A charge of some sort was put on the aluminum cans so that
they could be sorted and shipped. The metal cans were sorted
by a magnet as the conveyer ran the material under the magnet
to be separated.
The broken glass was filtered through a screening process
then moved to a collection area by conveyor. The glass is
then shipped to a glass recycler that uses an optical eye
to sort various colors of glass that will be processed.
The sunny day outside was quite warm; inside the temperature
was beyond belief. The non-stop running of motorized equipment,
which is required to handle the volume of recycling, produced
heat of great magnitude. The next time you have a complaint
about bad air conditioning, try to imagine what these workers
do for eight hours a day!
Recycling begins from the tipping floor. It is then loaded
onto conveyor lines where much of it is hand picked by workers.
Other areas have magnetic pickers which help separate the
materials. To offer a complete explanation of each and every
process would require far more words than you would care to
read. The photographs speak volumes.
The huge bales of crushed cans, each weighing in excess of
1000 pounds, were stacked in rows as were the bales of cardboard.
Glass and plastic went to a separate area to be sorted and
processed. When a truckload of bales is ready, it’s shipped
either via truck or rail to its final recycling destination.
This tour provided answers to those who may have had doubts
about recycling. What more can be said but the truth?
