What Does Waste Management Do with Trash, Anyway?
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What does Waste Management do with trash, anyway? We collect it from nearly 20 million residential, business, industrial and commercial customers. We burn it to generate green energy. Here’s the inside story. We recycle paper, plastics, glass, and metals for a variety of new uses. We dispose of it safely. We use gas from the decomposition of trash in landfills as a renewable energy source. Paper Some mills are able to use 100% recycled paper, while in others, recycled paper (long fibers) is combined with wood scraps from lumber mills. This is mixed to a Paper recyclables are separated pulp and poured onto large rollers and drained. The sheet is lifted and fed through Follow the Waste Stream into four categories: heated rollers, then trimmed and rolled. The rolls are sent to printing plants. • Corrugated Boxes Old newspaper is de-inked The “waste stream” describes the entire life cycle of the garbage • Old Newsprint (ONP) Paper recyclables by washing and rinsing it in Paper Mill • Mixed Paper are baled and sold large vats of water. This process Paper we produce – from putting out the trash and recycling for pickup • Office Mix primarily to paper also separates the short fibers mills. from the long fibers. Recycled to disposal, energy production and the reuse of recycled materials. Let’s follow the journey . Plastics Mixed plastic containers are sorted by type and color. Baled, recycled plastics are sent to a plastics remanufacturing plant. Air is blown into the mix to separate heavier and The plastics are ground up, washed, melted and formed into plastic lighter plastics. In some facilities, plastic containers pellets. The pellets are used to make containers, bottles, paint, Recycling Facility are optically scanned for separation into types, such clothing, furniture and many other consumer goods. as PET, HSPE, etc. Plastics Textile, plastic, bottle, carpet Plant Plastic and other manufacturers use these commodities. Recycled Glass Glass recyclables are crushed to form cullet, which is then Cullet is loaded onto trucks For use in making new glass containers, the cleaned This mixture is fed into a furnace and melted at temperatures reaching . cleaned of debris and contaminants. Depending on the facility, for transport to a variety cullet is mixed with sand, soda ash, feldspar and 2,700º Fahrenheit. Using recycled glass in this way reduces emissions .. ay glass may be sorted by color before or after crushing, or it of customers. It’s used in limestone at a glass plant. and energy usage, extends the life of plant equipment, and conserves D R w M t is may be shipped to end users without sorting. a number of applications, raw materials. h e th a c o Collection trucks bring recyclables to a WM Recycle America e y g i t cle le including new containers e yc Closing the Loop t rec facility. The recyclables are unloaded onto an area called the r s u r Materials yo for consumer products, a i a “tipping floor.” Notice that this is a ”single-stream” facility. road bedding, sandblasting, s p l Green energy is delivered via utility transmission lines to residential h s That makes recycling easier for everyone in the community, counter tops, and other uses. Glass Glass Plant g y and commercial customers. o o o since recyclables don’t need to be separated for collection. u Recycled t h p s i l From the tipping floor, recyclables are placed on conveyor s a Recycled materials are purchased by manufacturers, who use them to a w c belts, where they are sorted by machine or hand into e produce or package their products that are shipped to retailers. a i y n l broad categories of paper, plastic, glass and metal. Tin and steel are recovered through The steel is heated in large vats and poured . Magnets are used to separate Metals Aluminum remains on the chemical and electrolysis baths. onto sheets. The steel is coated with tin and Consumers buy the products from a wide variety of retail stores. As we the steel from the rest of the sort belt and is mechanically Then they are purified, melted shaped into cans. recycling stream. Steel attracted separated by an eddy current. and cast into ingots. use the products, we create waste that begins the cycle all over again. to the magnet is removed Steel Mill Depending on where to a storage bin for baling. After separation, you live, the trash you Waste-to-Energy Facility cans are crushed Aluminum is melted and poured into put out for collection may Responsible Disposal and baled for Aluminum ingot molds or rolled into sheets. The The sheets are shaped into Metal go to a waste-to-energy In a waste-to-energy facility, through the use of extremely high-temperature transport to steel ingots are used by industries to make cans, siding, storm window Recycled Consumers can responsibly dispose of items like compact fluorescent facility or a landfill. or aluminum mills. Plant new aluminum products. frames and other products. combustion, trash is converted into clean, light bulbs (CFLs), batteries, and electronics by using our convenient renewable energy that is used to light SM homes and heat buildings. Emissions from Think Green From Home recycling kits. the waste-to-energy facility are thoroughly The electricity is delivered via utility transmission lines to residential and commercial customers. cleaned using state-of-the-art air quality Waste-to-Energy Utility It’s as easy as ordering the appropriate kit online, filling the box control systems. with recyclables and mailing it back with the pre-paid return Trash brought to waste-to-energy plants Iron and steel are separated shipping label. is inspected to make sure it only contains The boiler units use Air pollution control from the waste-to-energy plant’s All of the plant's functions acceptable municipal waste. This waste is the trash as fuel. equipment cleans the inert ash residue and sent to are monitored in a state- deposited into a refuse pit. A crane picks Heat from combustion The high pressure steam is waste-to-energy plant’s recycling facilities. of-the-art computerized www.thinkgreenfromhome.com up the trash from the refuse pit and loads of the trash converts routed to a turbine generator emissions. The cleaned central control room, Green Landfill it into hoppers. Hydraulic rams feed the water in the boiler’s to produce electricity, which exhaust gas exits the manned 24 hours a day Energy trash into furnace boiler units. walls into steam is sold to the local utility. plant’s stacks. by trained operators. A landfill is an engineered system designed for safe, environmentally sound long-term waste disposal. Trash is deposited in the The fuel conditioner de-waters, Landfill gas may also be piped off-site landfill and compacted. The landfill’s liner Landfill-Gas-to-Energy filters, and pressurizes the to industrial customers for use as an and gas and leachate extraction systems gas so it can be used by alternative fuel source. protect the surrounding land, air and water Residential and commercial waste The methane gas is recovered the power-generating is transported to Waste Management via a series of wells drilled equipment. supply, and operating procedures include landfills for permanent disposal. into the landfill. These wells The gas is piped to an electricity regular environmental monitoring. Much of this waste, including food, are connected by a common generating plant, on- or off-site, paper and cardboard, is organic in pipe system that collects where it is used as fuel to turn nature. Bacteria digest this organic the gas and delivers it to Green engines or turbines to generate Energy waste and produce methane gas and a fuel conditioner. electricity. carbon dioxide as natural by-products. www.wm.com.