PHOENIX — You may not give much thought to what happens after you roll your blue recycling bin to the curb.

But inside Phoenix’s 27th Avenue Materials Recovery Facility, a maze of conveyor belts, machinery and workers helps determine whether the items you throw away will be reused or sent to a landfill.

More than 15 tons of material can move through the facility every hour.

Mixed in with the recyclable paper, cardboard, plastic, metal and glass, however, is plenty of ordinary trash.

“So they’re constantly pulling things off that shouldn’t be on the belt,” said Veridiana Cervantes with the Phoenix Public Works Department.

Employees spend hours working in hot, loud and sometimes foul-smelling conditions to sort through what residents place in their blue bins. Because workers cannot catch everything, technology provides another layer of help.

One machine, called the “AI Samurai,” uses a robotic arm equipped with suction to remove unwanted materials from the line carrying PET plastic, which includes water bottles.

Other optical sorters use infrared cameras to identify different types of plastic. Bursts of air then separate materials such as water bottles, milk jugs and laundry detergent containers.

“All of these optical sorters are made for a different type of material to be processed,” Cervantes said.

The goal is to remove contamination without throwing away materials that can still be reused.

“Here in Arizona, we do landfill our trash,” Cervantes said. “So the benefit of recycling is we are putting new life into all of these products and not just putting it back into the ground.”

What belongs in a Phoenix recycling bin?

Paper, cardboard, hard plastic containers, metal cans and glass bottles are generally accepted.

Plastic bags, electronics and yard waste do not belong in the blue bin. Neither do larger objects such as car parts.

For more information on what can and can’t be recycled, click here.

Plastic bags are one of the facility’s biggest problems because they can become tangled in the conveyor belts. When that happens, the system must be stopped and a harnessed worker may have to climb in to remove them.

“I want people to think about the staff we have here,” Cervantes said. “We have people and machines who are trying to do the right thing and get everything diverted from the landfill.”

Phoenix’s recycling facility may be capable of sorting through 15 tons of material every hour, but keeping the system working safely and efficiently begins at home, with residents putting the right things in the right bin.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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