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| Recover Facility Tour | ||
| State of the Art Waste Recovery | |||
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In the fall of 1997 the University's new Material Recovery Facility* (MRF) opened for business. This facility was added on to the existing Waste Transfer Station and now allows the campus to capture recyclable materials that formerly ended up in a landfill. A grant from the State of Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs funded the mezzanine and conveyer section. In addition, the new facility houses a sorting platform and baler. The system will enable the campus to recover additional recyclable material and market it at a higher price. | ||
| The importance of an expanded operation is two-fold. First, the facility will enable the campus to improve our recycling rate to over 50% of our waste stream, exceeding a State mandated goal of 40%. Second, the value added by baling the material, a step necessary to prepare it for sale in the market, will now be retained by the campus. As a result, disposal costs will be reduced and extra revenue will be generated from the sale of materials. The facility is designed to be self-supporting. | |||
| How Normal Waste is Handled | |||
| Yesterday: Non-hazardous
waste was picked up and collected in large dumpsters behind campus buildings. These
dumpsters were mechanically emptied into a compactor truck, driven to the Waste Transfer
Station where it was further compacted and sent to the landfill. Only bulky cardboard was
regularly pulled from the trash and recycled. The only way your aluminum can or office
paper would be recycled was for you to place it in a designated "Bottles and Cans
Only" or "Paper Only" container.
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| Today: A
truck arriving with trash from campus empties in the south bay tipping floor. At this point large bulky items are removed (i.e. big cardboard
boxes, equipment, various metals, etc.).
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Here, workers manually pull out recycables and drop them down shutes into storage bunkers.
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 View #1 of cardboard and paper bunkers |
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and view #2 of paper, aluminum, and PET plastic bunkers. | ||
| After sorting, the trash moves out of the main building and into the old section where it is put down compactors. |  |
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| Each morning the previous days recycling is combined with recycling that is collected from the "Bottles and Cans Only" |  |
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 or "Paper Only" containers. |
 In this photo, paper moves into the baler |
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where it will be compressed into large
bales. These bales are shipped by truck to a recycling mill where they command a much higher market price than loose material would. |
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 We also bale cardboard, aluminum cans, |
 and PET plastic bottles. |
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| Use the "Paper Only" and
"Bottles and Cans Only" bins. Please do not assume that if you throw your can in the trash it will be picked out at the Material Recovery Facility. Thinking before you throw and using the appropriate bin are still vitally important to the success of the recycling program. |
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