This is fantastic-many thanks! Sara ------ Sara Mattes
> On Mar 1, 2023, at 2:35 PM, Belinda Gingrich <[email protected]> > wrote: > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJqfWB1oZo8 > > In October a small group of volunteers from the Green Energy Committee and > Mothers Out front toured the facility where Lincoln’s recyclables go. The > Waste Management Material Recovery Facility (WMM) in Billerica is a former > Boston Globe building that has been repurposed. > > The WMM facility takes in “single-stream” recycling and separates it into > cardboard, plastic, paper, steel, aluminum, and glass. Once separated, > materials are crushed and baled for transportation to separate, specialized > recycling facilities. Due to the high cost of transporting glass (it’s > heavy), Lincolnites separate glass from our other recyclables, as the glass > is transported directly from Lincoln to a glass recycling facility. > > As we climbed up four stories of cat walks, we watched materials moving on > the conveyor belts. First, large cardboard is pulled out by handThen magnets > remove steel materials. Plastic is removed next with a vacuum, while paper is > left to fall into a lower level in the facility. Lastly, an eddy current > separator pulls out the aluminum. Each material that is separated from the > stream falls into a separate baler to be packaged for further transport. > > Our tour lasted almost 4 hours and I wished I had brought my noise canceling > headphones! We couldn’t hear anyone more than two feet away. The tour lasted > so long in part because the machinery spends a large amount of time turned > off as the employees cut out items that can’t be recycled at this facility > that have gotten tangled in the machinery such as garden hoses, plastic bags, > and baling twine. > > How does the system work? Lincoln pays a hauling fee to have our recycling > hauled to WMM. WMM weighs the containers before and after dumping and bills > Lincoln for the weight of stuff we send them. WMM separates the materials and > receives money for the recycled material. Right now cardboard is the most > valuable recyclable.. WMM then sends each contributing Town a portion of the > proceeds in proportion to the weight they contributed. We don’t live in a > vacuum. What we recycle matters but what the other towns do also impacts how > often the machinery is down and how much valuable material is recycled. > > So what’s the take away? > Don’t bother recycling shredded paper or small scraps. It flies about like > confetti.Any paper smaller than 2”x2” will most likely get lost in the system > and end in the trash containers that reside under the conveyor belts. > Reattach caps and lids before recycling. The caps on water bottles are > recyclable but will fall through the cracks unless secured on the water > bottle before recycling. > > Avoid tanglers. Plastic bags, twine, and fabric tangle in the machines and > clog up the conveyor belt. Find specialized recycling drop boxes for these > materials. When in doubt, throw it away instead. > > We will have more articles to follow! Check out RecycleMA.gov > <http://recyclema.gov/>-- > The LincolnTalk mailing list. > To post, send mail to [email protected]. > Browse the archives at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/private/lincoln/. > Change your subscription settings at > https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/lincoln. >
-- The LincolnTalk mailing list. To post, send mail to [email protected]. Browse the archives at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/private/lincoln/. Change your subscription settings at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/lincoln.
