A material recovery facility, or MRF, is a plant that receives collected waste and sorts it into separate, saleable material streams: paper, cardboard, different plastics, metals and glass. It is the sorting hub between waste collection and the recycling industry.
A clean MRF handles dry recyclables that were separated at source; a dirty MRF handles mixed waste and recovers what it can. Inside, material moves along conveyors through mechanical sorting equipment and manual sorting stations, and each sorted fraction is compressed by baling for transport. In India, MRFs are run by municipalities, private operators and recyclers, often integrating waste pickers as trained sorters. The better a MRF sorts, the higher the value of the bales it sells.
