Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Bogota central recycling facility


Here is the Materials Recovery Facility (where they sort and bale incoming co-mingled recycling for market) I mentioned in the last post. 




"What an odd scale" I thought to myself before I realized that it was for the tow wheeled donkey carts, not the large trucks like we have in the US. Most scales I have seen in the states are all large enough to fit an 18 wheeler. 
 Every commodity category is sorted here; by hand. Green PET from clear , Tetra pak, paper, shredded paper, rigid plastic, film clear, film mixed, aluminum, steal, etc…
 In many cities in the states there is no market for Tetra Paks, by no means do they fetch a good price here in Bogota, but at least they are recycling them.

  They even separate  out the clear PET that contained cooking oil. I believe it has a lower value than the normal PET (or at least keeps the normal PET price higher with it out of the mix), and there is so much food that is fried in cooking oil here, it may warrant its own stream.

 I loved this! I have never seen a bale bound together with twine in the States. All balers I have seen before use a metal cable. The baler in this facility puts this operations miles ahead of the rest of the recycling centers in Bogota, but it has its differences than the States.

Bales of Tetra Paks and more ready for market. 

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