Collected materials are taken to a material recovery facility (MRF) for processing. At the MRF, the material is delivered to the processing floor and loaded onto conveyor belts for sorting. The sorting process combines mechanical equipment and manual labor to remove contamination from the stream of materials. Many items like food waste, trash, and plastic bags must be manually removed from the conveyor belt in order to prevent equipment damage and further contamination of the recyclables. Once the material is sorted, a compactor bales the items into large blocks to be sold for the production of new material.