I’ve heard a lot of recycling materials still go into landfills in the U.S. How does Carmel avoid this?
Republic Services operates a large Recycle Center on the northwest side of Indianapolis, just across county line. Here is the process of how material is collected, sorted/processed, baled, and shipped out to market within Carmel.
Recycle material is collected in Recycle carts, containers and/or bins at one’s residence and/or business. A dedicated truck collects the material on a designated route. Once full the truck delivers the material to Republic’s Recycle Center and it is dumped in the recycle bay at the back of the building.
There are quality control inspectors throughout the process that ensure the proper material is safely sorted…
There are quality control inspectors throughout the process that ensure the proper material is safely sorted throughout, not to mention what should “not be” there gets removed prior to shipment.
After the material is sorted into its own commodity (cardboard, paper, aluminum, plastic bottles, plastic containers, jugs etc.), they run up a separate conveyor belt and into a baler. The bales are stored on site and transferred to semi-trailers for shipment to various mills.
You can visit http://recyclingsimplified.com for more information.
Authored by Laura Campbell, Sue Finkam, Kevin Rider, Jeff Worrell, Miles Nelson, Anthony Green and Adam Aasen.