Wasted

The Phoenix Open is a long standing tradition in the Valley. It's the highest attended golf tournament on the PGA Tour (we're talking more than 100,000 people per day...to watch golf!). It also probably has the highest alcohol consumption per attendee of any tournament on the PGA Tour (maybe even any sporting event in general) - but I digress.

Anyway, Waste Management took over the title sponsorship for the Open this year - and called E.B. Lane to help. It's been a crazy week in my office. I'm more of a support on this account - so I stayed at work to get my work done and hold down the fort, but I have been helping with the morning weatherman pitching, so Tuesday, I had the opportunity to spend more than three hours at Waste Management's recycling facility with the local CBS affiliate.

Local weatherman Paul Horton, his cameraman Craig and the recycling facility manager Jerry - Jerry was wearing a BYU beanie, so we were instantly friends!

It actually is pretty cool to see the process and makes for some great photos (never mind the part where I had to leave my house at 3:15 so I could be there at 4 a.m.) - and yes, they actually open the plant at 4 a.m.

So...the recycling trucks pick up the recyclables (all mixed together...did you know it increased recycling 40 percent when they moved from having to sort your own recyclables into different bins to being able to throw them all in one big bin?) from your driveway. Then they come here, to the recycling plant (it's called a MRF (pronounced merf)- materials recovery facility - by those who are in the know - I'm not really one of these people, but thought I would show off my cool new vocabulary just a bit). And the trucks drop them off in big huge piles (people in the know call this area the tipping floor - which is important because maybe I accidentally called some other area the tipping floor when I didn't know what they were talking about and got everyone all confused).

Then, the bulldozer picks up a scoop of the recyclables and drops them on a conveyor belt like so...


Your recyclables are then moved from place to place on a series of conveyor belts...


And hand sorted...like so...


Finally, they are placed in giant piles of sorted recyclables and turned into large bales of one type of material.


They are then ready to be shipped off throughout the world to become something that you will eventually use and then throw back in your recycling bin...ahh, the cirle of life!

Okay, now it's quiz time:

1. Are plastic bags recyclable?
2. Why or why not?
3. How many tons of recyclables does this ONE facility sort through each day?

Extra credit question:
What's the craziest thing Jerry, the site manager, has ever found in the recyclables?

Good luck! The winner gets my undying respect.