Recycling Benefits Valley
Dirty diapers is just one of the items found in a recycling pile that workers sort through during their day, said Kim Allsop. Allsop, secretary and co-owner of the recycling company Mountain Fiber Insulation, said about 500 tons of recycling goes through the factory each month, including things like dirty diapers that aren’t supposed to be thrown into the recycling bins.
The 500 tons are collected from Cache Valley and are driven to the factory in Hyrum, she said. The company workers then sort through several different types of recycling such as newspapers, cardboard, plastics, aluminum, and steel soup cans. Due to some people’s indifference, Allsop said she receives a substantial amount of garbage in the recycling bins from people probably moving in and out of apartments that just want to dump their garbage somewhere.
Paper makes up 80 percent of what Mountain Fiber Insulation receives, Allsop said, and roughly 80 percent of that stays in Cache Valley for manufacturing such as insulation.
Curb-side cans are brought to the recycling plant everyday, Allsop said, and the contents form a pile 10 to 15 feet high in the warehouse where it is scooped up by a skidster and dumped onto a conveyor belt. From there 10 to 12 employees on the sorting line divide the contents for 8 to 10 hours a day. Most of the workers wear medical masks to shield out the dust caused by paper shreds. The recycling is sorted first by taking out the cardboard and loading it into a baler. From there, paper and plastic is sorted out and placed into separate balers and lastly, a large magnetized conveyor belt, approximately the top measurements of a large office desk, grabs the steel from the aluminum and drops it into a bin. “The bails of recycling can weigh anywhere from 900 to 1200 pounds depending on what is in them,” said Allsop.
The cardboard is sent to a mill where it is turned into pulp then most of it is turned into new cardboard, Allsop said, and the plastics are sent to China.
“As a whole, the county has gotten better at recycling over the years but people that move here from back east are astonished at how slow we(Cache Valley residence) are to even get this far,” Allsop said. Recycling receptacles are found all over the valley, she said, and if there isn’t one near your residence you can take your recycling to the drop site at the landfill. “Once you learn how to recycle, it becomes a way of life,” Allsop said.
-renae.cowely@aggiemail.usu.edu