When recycling leaves our homes and businesses in Sharon, it goes to a transfer station in Fall River, MA.

There it is dumped onto the "tipping floor" and bulldozed into a shipping container or truck.

From there it is sent to the Casella materials recovery facility (MRF - pronounced like "smurf") in Auburn, MA.

At the MRF, the materials are sorted both manually and by machine.

Once the materials are sorted, they are "baled" - squished into huge dense blocks of material - by baler machines. After they are all baled up, the materials are sold to producers who will repurpose them into new products.

See this video to learn more about where recyclables go when they leave the MRF.