(COLORADO SPRINGS) — This month is Plastic Free July and Waste Management took FOX21 on a tour of the one Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in Colorado Springs.

“This place is very important because this is where we receive recyclables from a lot of the community here, businesses as well as households,” said Colorado Springs MRF District Manager, Erwin Galvan. “We take recyclables, both residential and commercial recyclables.”

The facility was filled with cardboard boxes being sorted and then placed onto a conveyor belt.

“Right now we’re baling cardboard,” said Colorado Springs MRF Supervisor, James Clark. “That process goes up the belt, over the equipment, and it builds a bale. One of the bales weighs about 1300 pounds apiece, and then those bales get shipped out to different mills.”

Up close to the machine that processes the cardboard and builds the bale.

Besides cardboard, the facility also takes aluminum, glass, paper and plastic. Compared to past years, Waste Management said they have seen a change in the number of products their customers are recycling.

A pile of magazines that Galvan pointed out at the facility.

“To be honest, our volumes have decreased a little bit. post-COVID, it really has changed our industry,” Galvan said. “In the past, we used to have our highs and lows as far as how much material was coming into our facilities. Now, it’s a little bit more spread out, but the volume overall has decreased slightly.”

After the summer months, the facility expects to see an increase as school resumes and the holiday season approaches.

“It increases a little bit during the summer days,” Galvan said. “Going back to school, that’s when it really jumps back up again. We do see a lot more recyclable cardboard paper. A lot of that stuff comes in more, more plastics.”

Plastic water bottles sorted to then be reused.

While ensuring products can be reused, there are some mistakes made by customers that cause the process to take longer.

“A lot of people don’t understand that the bags are trouble,” Clark said. “They get into the system, they slow things down, they cause havoc. [Also,] trash mixed in with the recycling. Nobody wants a dirty soup can in their recycling. But taking care, taking the steps to make sure that what they’re recycling is cleaner, it helps the process here.”

A WM worker sorts through cardboard and puts it on the conveyor belt.

Other tips included understanding the shape of the product and not looking at the number on the back of the bottle.

“We try to guide our customers by saying, you know, just look at the shape of the bottle or the container,” Galvan said. “We’re looking for cans, we’re looking for jars, we’re looking for jugs and tubs.”

At the end of the day – a reminder of the positive benefits to recycling and how the facility is working to ensure Southern Colorado stays clean.

“Recycling is very important because… it saves raw material used for consumers,” Galvan said. “Basically, we get to reuse those materials and by doing that, we’re saving water, energy and emissions from manufacturing, so we’re helping out the planet.”