These field trips, as always, have been really worthwhile and interesting. I’ve been taking people to SKM for years now because they kindly offer Environment Victoria free tours and this particular recycling factory allows the visitor to witness the entire fascinating process. It’s not actually recycling they do at SKM. It is a Materials Recovery Facility or MRF, meaning they sort through all the mixed materials we put into our recycling bins and separate them into carefully baled squares of one product – paper, one type of plastic, aluminium – or into landscaped hills of crushed glass, ready to be sent elsewhere for recycling.