The Materials Recovery Facility (MRF)

For waste in Placer County, You Toss & We Sort! And by “we,” we mean the MRF. The WPWMA’s new Materials Recovery Facility (also called the “MRF” or “Merf”) is where all residential and commercial mixed waste is dropped off for sorting. Whether it’s trash picked up from your garbage can at home, at the office, or at a public park, it all ends up at the Materials Recovery Facility. Placer County uses a unique “One Big Bin” mixed-waste sorting and collection process to sort recyclable and compostable items, diverting them from landfill disposal. This helps keep our community a beautiful and sustainable place to live – now and for future generations. In 2025, the WPWMA completed a $120 million renovation and upgrade to facilities across our campus, including a new advanced Materials Recovery Facility, also known as a High Diversion Organic Waste Processing Facility (HDOWPF). Our new MRF has nearly tripled material recovery, increasing the minimum recovery rate from 25% with the original MRF to 60% with the new MRF. Additionally, as a HDOWPF, the new MRF diverts more than 75% of the organic waste (food scraps, soiled paper products, etc.) that gets thrown away in Placer County garbage cans and sends it to our composting facility instead. While there are more than 200 different conveyor belts and 50 different sorting machines inside the MRF, sorting happens through four ways: Size, Density, Shape, and Material Type.