MISSOULA — Republic Services' Missoula Recycling Facility, located on Broadway, takes recyclable materials from residential bins and ships them elsewhere for processing.
"How much material are you all going through a year?" MTN asked.
"Oh gosh, I think 15 million pounds was last year,” said Samuel Lubbers, a recycling operations supervisor.
Megan Redmond, municipal services manager for Republic Services, and Lubbers said the facility accepts most recyclable materials, except plastic bags.
They said there is a common misconception about where the material goes.
"Our trucks are all just the big blue trucks. And so our recycling trucks look just like our garbage trucks. And so I think that's one thing people assume the garbage truck is just picking up the recycling when really it's a recycling-only route. That's what they're getting. And they're bringing it here and dropping it off in the yard," Redmond said.
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The facility receives a wide variety of recyclable materials, including all seven classifications of plastic, cardboard, metals and other items.
"Copper, brass, aluminum, stainless steel, automotive batteries, SLA batteries," Lubbers said.
Most materials collected at the Missoula facility are shipped to processing centers, including locations in Washington and Wisconsin, where they are turned into products that can be sold.
"Sending this to Las Vegas is our key one. We just built another one in Indianapolis, and I believe one in Georgia. I want to say we have one in Pennsylvania on the books," Lubbers said.
Lubbers and Redmond said the biggest challenges in processing recyclable materials are contamination and plastic bags, with substances like glue creating issues during metal processing and bags clogging sorting machines.
Key takeaways: residents should rinse and dry recyclable materials to reduce contamination, and plastic bags are not accepted.
