Where do my recyclables go?
Milton Keynes Council's Materials Recycling Facility (MRF)
Milton Keynes Council has one of the best recycling facilities in the UK. The MRF is managed by the Council's contractor Community Waste who sort and sell the recyclable materials. Due to the size and efficiency of the MRF Community Waste also have capacity to sort materials from the neighbouring local authorities of Bedford and Northampton.
Video of the MRF Community Waste facility
What happens at the MRF?
The recycling arrives for sorting mixed together or co-mingled. Councils increasingly collect materials co-mingled for economic reasons; a greater number of households can be visited quickly by one lorry and crew, helping to keep down the cost of collections and therefore your council tax.
The MRF is a state-of-the-art facility and uses a range of technologies to sort recyclables by their physical and chemical properties; shape, size, weight, magnetism and light absorption.
The recyclables pass through a series of machines each designed to remove a different material, until eventually only contamination and rubbish remain on the conveyor belts.
