Ysabelle Therese Jimenea

Materials recovery facility (MRF), also known as materials reclamation facility or materials
recycling facility, solid-waste management plant that processes recyclable materials to sell to
manufacturers as raw materials for new products. MRFs are generally classified as either “clean”
or “dirty,” depending on whether the facility handles materials that are mixed with other
municipal waste. MRFs play an important role in reducing the waste stream, the demand for raw
materials, and pollution associated with the manufacturing of new products.

A clean MRF can be differentiated from a dirty MRF in that it accepts commingled blue bin
material - in other words, recyclable materials that have been separated by households or
businesses. A dirty MRF, on the other hand, processes household or commercial trash that has
not had trash removed. Dirty MRFs potentially allow for greater recovery in that it can capture
material that would have been missed if consumers placed it in the trash rather than the blue
bin. The dirty MRF approach can also allow for the recovery of a wider range of materials than a
clean MRF.

On the other hand, the dirty MRF can require considerably more manual labor for sorting, and
can result in the contamination of paper and OCC (old corrugated cardboard.)
The recovery rate of recyclable material from a clean MRF is predictably very high, while the
recovery from a dirty MRF is much lower, in the five to 45% range. Dirty MRF material is also
much heavier, thanks to organic material in trash. It averages around 350 pounds per cubic yard
where organics are not diverted, as opposed to 50 to 100 pounds per cubic yard of blue box
material.