Today is the day I finally made it home, to the Arborea MSW Treatment Facility. If the past 10 days in Sardinia have taught me anything, it is that I belong in an MSW Treatment Facility and will one day be a trash lady. I will admit, I was not in the best of moods going into the trip, but the facility was so astonishing that a grin was glued to my face for the rest of the day. As we walked across the dusty parking lot, past the whiffs of decomposing organic waste, I could just feel that this is the life for me.
We started our visit with a video explaining how the facility works. The waste arrives, already separated, because we are in Sardinia, and is then sorted more thoroughly through various different processes. The organic waste goes to compost and eventually ends up as fertilizer, pretty straight forward. The waste that is not compostable or recycled, is evaluated for incineration and eventually heads to the landfill. The recyclables, however, are sorted. This is one of the most magical processes I have ever seen. We watched as all recyclables were dumped on to a conveyor belt. Magnets and puffs of air sorted out the steel from aluminum from plastic. The workers were there to guide the process, but to me, the machines seemed to be in control. Except for the part were someone accidentally pressed the emergency button and forced it all to a stop. Moving on, we watched the optical sensor decipher the chemical composition of the plastics to sort out the PET from the PET using the puffs of air. They did this again for all of the different colors and transparencies of plastics until there were six huge piles of sorted plastic. The front end loader then picked up each pile to bring it to be baled.
This experience was one of my favorites so far because we actually got to watch our work in action. I am now certain that I can see myself in an MSW Treatment Facility, and I am very thankful to have that confirmation.
We started our visit with a video explaining how the facility works. The waste arrives, already separated, because we are in Sardinia, and is then sorted more thoroughly through various different processes. The organic waste goes to compost and eventually ends up as fertilizer, pretty straight forward. The waste that is not compostable or recycled, is evaluated for incineration and eventually heads to the landfill. The recyclables, however, are sorted. This is one of the most magical processes I have ever seen. We watched as all recyclables were dumped on to a conveyor belt. Magnets and puffs of air sorted out the steel from aluminum from plastic. The workers were there to guide the process, but to me, the machines seemed to be in control. Except for the part were someone accidentally pressed the emergency button and forced it all to a stop. Moving on, we watched the optical sensor decipher the chemical composition of the plastics to sort out the PET from the PET using the puffs of air. They did this again for all of the different colors and transparencies of plastics until there were six huge piles of sorted plastic. The front end loader then picked up each pile to bring it to be baled.
This experience was one of my favorites so far because we actually got to watch our work in action. I am now certain that I can see myself in an MSW Treatment Facility, and I am very thankful to have that confirmation.
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