The GreenWaste MRF
 

The GreenWaste Material Recovery Facility (MRF) is one of the most innovative processing facilities in the world. Located in the City of San Jose, this 96,000 square foot facility processes and recycles residential and commercial trash, yard trimmings, curbside recyclables, food waste and construction and demolition debris. In 2008, GreenWaste completed a massive construction and re-permitting effort to install two side-by-side processing lines and accept up to 2,000 tons per day of material. The completion of this new “state-of-the-art” processing equipment has enabled us to focus our recycling and processing efforts on removing organics and recyclables from incoming waste streams and recycling and composting as much as possible. Since it began operation, the facility has consistently demonstrated recovery rates of more than 98% for recyclable materials and 75% of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW).

Moving Towards Zero Waste

 
The GreenWaste MRF is the first facility in the nation to step up to the challenge of Zero Waste by visioning and installing two side-by-side processing lines to sort both MSW and single-stream curbside recycling under the same roof. This arrangement takes advantage of both the unique and similar aspects of the two waste streams, merging clean product from both lines to maximize efficiency and increase the quantity and quality of materials recovered. This side-by-side design results in economies of scale and allows the facility to take a more comprehensive and cost-effective approach to process ALL incoming material -- not just those materials that are source separated and easier to recover. The mechanical sorting mechanisms and processes include: conveyors, sorting stations, screens, separators, magnets, optical sorters, bag breaker, and an eddy current separator. Processing at the facility begins manually, becomes mechanical, and then goes back to a manual process for final quality control. The result is unparalleled diversion and consistently cleaner product.