Materials Recycling Facility

Facts About Your MRF

The 65,050 square foot facility is located on 7.15 acres in the center of Prince George's County, just off the Beltway.

Your MRF processes glass bottles and jars, plastic containers (soda bottles, milk and water jugs, and detergent bottles), aluminum cans, steel cans, bi-metal cans, and newspaper from 155,000 residences in the County.

The recyclable materials are sorted mechanically (magnets, screens, etc.) and by hand and either crushed (glass) or baled (newspaper, plastic, bi-metal, steel, and aluminum) for shipment to markets.

Your MRF has the capacity to recycle 300 tons of material per day. This tonnage includes 126 tons of containers and 174 tons of paper per day. The total tonnage of recyclables represents 12% of the total waste stream or approximately 100,000 tons a year.

The sorting line has enclosed employee workstations with heat and air conditioning.

Your MRF employs over twenty-five people. Most are County residents.

35% of the contract for operating the facility is awarded to minority businesses for materials hauling, personnel services, and landscape maintenance.

Paper Processing Line

1.The Prince George's MRF is capable of processing several different types of paper, including corrugated cardboard, white paper, newspaper, and mixed paper. (At this time, the only type of paper being accepted is newspaper.) The paper is unloaded onto the tipping floor and pushed into the paper infeed pit.

2.The paper is conveyed to the sorting station where recycling center employees remove the contaminants.

3. The paper continues along the conveyor and is then baled for shipment to end markets.

Mixed Recyclables Processing Line

1. Collection vehicles are weighed at the scale house and then unload the mixed recyclables (glass, aluminum, bi-metal, steel, and plastics) onto the tipping floor. The material is then pushed into an infeed pit.

2. From the infeed pit, the recyclables move along the conveyor belt, the speed of which is controlled automatically fo a steady flow of materials.

3. The mixed recyclables move through a sorting station where non-recyclables are removed by recycling center employees.

4. As the mixed recyclables continue on the conveyor belt, an overhead electromagnet pulls out steel, bi-metal, and tin cans which are then baled for shipment to an end market.

5. Aluminum, glass, and plastic proceed to the screening machine. The machine screens out mixed broken glass and fine materials.

6. Glass bottles, aluminum cans, and plastic containers roll onto an inclined sorting table. The lightweight aluminum and plastic are pushed to each side of the sorting table by a rotating chain and brushes. Glass bottles and jars, because of their weight, fall through the rotating chain and continue on the conveyor belt. (See Step 10)

7. The aluminum and plastic pass over another screening machine for further removal of fine materials and automatic separation of large plastic containers (gallon jugs and large soda bottles). Paper Processing Line

8. The remaining materials (aluminum and smaller plastic containers) continue to an eddy current which automatically separates out the aluminum cans. The eddy current has opposing magnetic fields that propel the aluminum cans onto a separate line and then to a baler.

9. The remaining plastics are conveyed to the plastics sorting station where recycling center employees sort out the soda bottles (polyethylene terephthalate or PET) and deposite them onto a separte conveyor which goes to the PET baler. The milk jugs and detergent bottles (high density polyethylene or HDPE) continue on the conveyor and go directly to the HDPE baler.

10. After the glass is separted on the inclined sorting table (See Step 6), it proceeds to the glass sorting station. Here, recycling center employees sort the glass by color -- green, brown, and clear. Each color is then crushed and stored in 10' by 10' steel bins until it is taken to market.