The Magic of MRFs: From Plastic Waste to Sustainable Solutions

Welcome to Suits & Tides, the sustainability blog with more knowledge than microplastics in the ocean. Today we will take you on a journey where we'll talk more about MRF and its role in making a better environment for us all.

Plastic waste has become a pressing global concern due to its detrimental environmental impact. With the global production of plastics reaching staggering levels, effective plastic waste management strategies, including recycling and recovery, are essential.?

As Seven Clean Seas commits to tackling the issue, we keep updating you on how much plastics have been removed from the ocean and environment, but have you ever wondered what we do with our collected plastic waste?

YES! Here’s how, after capturing the many recyclable plastic wastes from our cleanup activities, we take them to our yellow-Material Recovery Facility (MRF) to be sorted and then recycled in-house or through 3rd parties!

But to help you understand more about what this means, we're taking you on a journey as we delve into the concept of MRFs and their significance in promoting sustainable plastic waste management.

Okay, why MRF?

The MRF plays a vital role in the waste management system that is made up of five basic components:?

1. Waste generation
2. Storage
3. Collection
4. Processing & treatment
5. Final disposal.?

These stages are the cornerstones of recycling and repurposing. The MRF here is an enabler for the circular economy of plastic waste, mainly in the processing and treatment component, as we sort, separate, and store plastic here for further recycling, either in-house with our advanced machinery or by third parties.

Without MRF, there would be no safe or available space to store and process the collected waste, and thus it would stay in its "waste form" and more likely end up in landfills. It's important for us to have an MRF so we can prepare as much plastic as possible to reuse, repurpose, or recycle, and ultimately, closing the system by keeping the plastic in the value chain as long as possible is critical for a circular economy.

The HARD truth and how an MRF can help

Our mission of collecting 10,000,000 kg of plastic waste by 2025 and our commitment to ensure a positive impact on the environment and building an infrastructure around this means that we must deal with mismanaged plastic waste in the environment – from collection to a safe end-of-life destination.?

Collecting and then recycling the plastic that has incorrectly been thrown out in or onto beaches, rivers, and oceans is very challenging. Why? Well, the waste gets dispersed over large areas, making it difficult to find and reach it as it can stay there for a very long time, slowly degraded by the sun, salt, and organics.?

Now take a moment, and imagine ketchup still in the sachet, food waste stuck in the packaging, organics attached in plastic bottles, paint sticking on labels, sand inside plastic cups and other contaminants. How do we recycle this plastic??

This kind of complexity is why the MRF has emerged as a crucial component in our operation, offering a facility to address and remove these contaminants and then recover and recycle the plastic materials.?

How MRF works

Having an MRF helps us maximise the recovery of recyclable materials from our projects, the ability to do in-house recycling, and directly contribute to the development of the circular economy as it enables us to do the following:

1. Pre-treatments and storing – of both high and low-value recyclables.

Once the collected waste reaches the MRF, the plastic waste is washed, dried, and carefully sorted out. At SCS, our trained crew manually segregates, treats, and stores the different plastic materials based on their types, grade, and colour and registers this in our online database!

2. Processing and recycling

After the pre-treatment, the plastic waste undergoes further recycling, transforming it into raw materials or new products, depending on the type (or value) and quality of the plastic.?

This way, the recovered plastics can be used to manufacture new products, reducing the demand for virgin materials. For instance, high-value plastics (e.g., PET from plastic bottles) can be processed into pellets, and low-value plastics (e.g., plastic bags and foam packaging) can be repurposed into construction and building components, such as bricks and floor tiles. Moreover, this process can also minimise the need for new resources and reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills, as these plastics are harder to convert into higher-value products.

Although MRF can create wonders in creating and further recycling plastic waste into other products, it's important to remember that what can or cannot be recycled depends on the machinery equipped in the facility, the specific waste handled, and which products are desirable to create.?

What we do

After successfully establishing and operating our MRF in Bintan, we have built another in Batam this year (can we get a high five for this?).?

Our MRF has its wonders and perks, especially in becoming a part of our solution to create a better environment and to do a better job at further recycling plastic waste. After our collected plastics go through some intense processing & treatment, we focus more on recreating them into various desirable and valuable products for the local communities, given the waste input we collect from those sites. We want to ensure that we're making a positive impact by creating a better circular economy for plastics in those areas.

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