Material Recovery Facility Up and Running

Published on 20 February 2025

Our Material Recovery Facility (MRF) kicked off its wet-commissioning phase late last week, with the first batch of recyclable materials being processed, sorted, and baled.

At this stage, the system can process 1 tonne of materials per hour, however Council is looking at increasing that to 3 tonnes per hour.

Council's Recycling Coordinator Richard Auld said the wet-commissioning phase would take about a week-and-a-half and would enable Waste Management Facility staff to fine-tune the system and carry out checks while it processed residential recyclables.

Each day, garbage trucks deliver the recyclables, which go through a pre-sort process via conveyor belt, where staff remove potentially dangerous items - including batteries, smartphones and tablets, fuel cans, and paint tins.

The accepted items then go through a trommel - a large cylinder with different-sized holes - which sorts them by size, dropping them into various chutes.

A large magnet separates aluminium and steel items (drink and food containers) and diverts them to dedicated chutes. Paper and cardboard items are also separated.

Sophisticated cameras and computers can quickly and accurately identify plastic containers by type as they go past on a conveyor belt, and they are separated accordingly into relevant chutes.

Once a sufficient amount of recyclable materials including paper, cardboard, and plastics is collected, it's removed from its chute and compressed in a baler to await transport to recycling centres.

Click here to find out more about recycling in Mount Isa.