‘You name it, I’ve seen it’: Behind-the-scenes look at how your trash is recycled

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - The Republic Services recycling center in Colorado Springs welcomed KRDO 13's Bradley Davis to show you how your qualified trash is sorted, crushed and hauled off to become recycled goods. It's a process made more difficult by the peculiar items its employees have to hand-pick off their belt.

"They're throwing diapers away!" facility manager George Engelhardt said as he held up a styrofoam cooler filled with a used diaper and a partially eaten cookie. "I just don't know how people can look at that and say, 'hey, let's throw this in the recycle, and let them handle it."

At Republic Services, workers sort through all 80 tons of recycled material they get every day as it moves along the conveyor belt.

Despite the improperly recycled products that jam the machine and contaminate other material, Engelhardt said they're able to crush about 90% of what they receive for shipment and reproduction.

Engelhardt said the most common improperly recycled items at their plant are food-stained boxes, non-labeled plastics and glass, styrofoam (generally not accepted at curbside services) and scrap metal. Engelhardt also stressed the importance of not putting recycles in bags.

If you have scrap metal, you can find specialty metal recycling facilities across Southern Colorado that will pay you for it, rather than have it thrown into the landfill after being filtered out at the recycle plant.