Materials Recovery Facilities
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Introduction
Many MRFs throughout the U.S. and Canada are successfully recovering foodservice packaging, although the specific material and packaging types recovered vary greatly.
As MRFs consider accepting foodservice packaging, it is important to have an idea of how much material this will generate. In a city of 250,000 people, roughly 3,000 tons of cups, containers, boxes and paper bags are generated annually. About 75% of this material is fiber. That means that at a ten percent recovery rate – which is a realistic initial goal for new materials – a MRF could expect an additional 300 or so tons of recoverable material each year, consisting of approximately 230 tons of paper and 70 tons of plastic.
In addition to MRFs, plastic recovery facilities (PRFs), can also be a component in recycling plastic foodservice packaging. PRFs purchase mixed plastics or pre-picked (#3-7) bales from MRFs, which may include PET, PP, PS and PLA cups and containers. Utilizing cutting-edge sorting technologies, such as optical and gravity sorting, PRFs are able to successfully produce segregated resins, which are often sold domestically to plastic reclaimers. For PRFs, it’s interesting to note a recent study of cups found in mixed plastics bales revealed:
Cups made up roughly 6% of the sampled pre-picked bales.
Polypropylene was the most prevalent cup material type in all the bales sampled.
Finally, secondary processing facilities are another option to recycle foodservice packaging that may not have been sorted in a MRF. These operations typically buy residue and remainders from MRFs’ conveyor belts and further sort the material to recover and sell paper, plastics, metals, etc.
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