Who sorts the recycling?

Once collected, your recycling is taken to a material recovery facility in Sydney. The truck unloads unsorted recycling (paper, plastics, glass, etc) onto conveyor belts and then the sorting process begins. Air jets are used to separate paper, regular magnets are used to pick up steel cans, eddie current magnets are used to repel aluminium into containers, while lasers identify and sort glass into different types and colours. Other materials are sorted by hand, such as items too contaminated for recycling (for instance dirty steel cans or mouldy cardboard). Once sorted, the materials are sent to specialist recycling plants.