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Automated recycling facility

Winnipeg's first single stream automated recycling facility, also called a materials recovery facility (MRF - pronounced murf), processes all the paper, cardboard, aluminum and plastics collected from the curbside collection program (homes and apartments) and the recycling depots.

What is single stream recycling?
It's when recyclable materials can be combined and collected together:

• customers don't have to sort their recyclable materials
• collectors don't have to sort them into the collection truck

How does the automated sorting system work?

• Three star screens separate the paper materials from the beverage containers.
  • A star screen is a series of shafts aligned on an incline and fitted with rotating cams shaped like stars.
  • The soft paper is propelled forward, while the more rigid beverage containers fall backwards (due to the incline) through the openings between the shafts.
  • Over 90 per cent of the paper is removed mechanically by the star screens, with the remainder, along with any contaminants, removed by manual sorters.
• The beverage containers that have fallen through the star screens continue through the system to the beverage container sort line.
• Before being manually sorted, the containers pass under a magnet to remove ferrous metals, and through a glass breaker screen to remove glass.
• Finally, an eddy current system removes aluminum cans.
• The individual materials are then baled and placed in the shipping area to await transportation to manufacturing plants all over the world.

How much material is processed at the MRF?
The MRF can process about 15 to 20 tonnes of mixed recycling materials per hour. We process between 40,000 to 45,000 tonnes each year.

What kind of materials recovery facility is it?
The materials recovery facility features equipment from Bollegraaf Recycling Machinery . This is the only Bollegraaf manufactured system in Canada, the only single stream materials recovery facility west of Toronto and one of four single stream materials recovery facilities in Canada.

Who owns and runs the MRF?
International Paper Industries Ltd. (IPI) owns and operates Winnipeg's materials recovery facility. The City hired IPI in 2003 through a competitive tender process for a 14-year contract to process and market recyclable materials. IPI is a Canadian-owned and operated firm. Their head office is in Vancouver, British Columbia.

How much did IPI invest in the recycling operation?
IPI invested over $10 million to set up the recycling plant and collection trucks.

Did you know?

• 90% (by weight) of the operation is automated
• some manual sorting is required to identify items that can't be sorted by machines (e.g., some plastics) and those materials that aren't accepted in the program
• paper is in and out of the facility in an average of 24 hours
• 6 trailers of paper/cardboard are processed per day
• the facility operates 5 days per week
• on average, 160 thousand kilograms of materials are processed per day
• 35,000 homes are serviced by 20 trucks per day (1 route per truck)
• 100 bales of material are processed each day, each bale weighing about 1 tonne