I don't know about you, but I take recycling for granted.
You finish your drink, and you just toss the plastic bottle into a bin marked "Recycling".
Then, something happens to it, and you're told it's good for the environment, and then you feel good because you're saving the planet in your own small way by not throwing that bottle into the garbage.
But how does recycling really work?
What happens to that plastic, or that can, or that piece of paper I toss into that little bin with the arrows on it?
Recycling is, basically, the process of collecting waste materials and breaking them down into building blocks that can be turned into new products.
Since each material is made of different things, it needs to be broken down in its own way.
Paper, for instance, becomes wood fibres, but glass is just crushed into tiny pieces.
And, since 1973, scientists and engineers have been working on the best ways to separate clean and processed recyclables at "Material Recovery Facilities".
They're also known as "MRFs", for short, which is a much more awesome and fun name that we will be using from now on.
