Materials Reclamation Facility (MRF)

 

Glasgow City Council operate the largest Local Authority Materials Reclamation Facility (MRF) in Scotland

The plant is built over 3 floors and is situated at the Polmadie Disposal Complex.

Polmadie Recycling Complex


It has recently been upgraded to include the latest technology and it is designed to process over 25,000 tonnes of material per annum. It can process paper, plastic bottles, tins and cans. 

 

 

The operation can be broken down into seven stages:-

 

 

1) After Blue Bin collection, material is delivered by the vehicle to the top floor of the MRF where it is inspected for quality.

 

Recycle material delivery

 

2) Paper, Plastic bottles, Tins and Cans are pushed onto a conveyor belt and are taken to the middle floor.

 

Recycle material goes to sorting

 

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3) Contaminants can damage machinery and equipment. Only Paper, plastic bottles, tins and cans must be put into the blue bins. As materials continue along the conveyor belt and staff remove any unwanted items that could contaminate the load. 

 

 

4) A series of rotating disks and pressurised air jets then mechanically separate paper from plastic bottles, tins and cans.

 

Material is mechanically seperated

 

5) Steel cans are removed by a magnet. Aluminium cans do not have magnetic properties and are removed by an ‘eddy’ current.   

 

Steel is removed by Magnet

 

 

Aluminium is removed by "Eddy Current"

 

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6) Staff then manually separate the plastic bottles into 2 types (HDPE and PET) and place them into the designated balers.

  

7) Once all the materials are separated they are baled or loaded into containers in the ground floor and sent to one of our recycling partners to be made into new products.           

 

   

 

 

Your magazines and newspapers will be recycled into new paper products.

 

Your cans and tins will be recycled into fridges and freezers.

 

Your plastic bottles will be recycled into fleece jackets and blue wheeled recycling bins.

                    

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Contact Details

Glasgow City Council
Land and Environmental Services
231 George Street
Glasgow
G1 1RX

 

Phone:    0141 287 9700

 

Fax:        0141 287 9710

 

Email:     Cleansing