**A limited number of tours of the Material Recovery Facility (MRF) are available, please email for more information.**
Tours of the Material Recovery Facility (MRF) educate visitors on the recycling process in Westchester County. MRF tours are free of charge and by appointment only for groups starting at the kindergarten level, including school classes, scout troops, and special interest groups. Tours may be scheduled for weekdays only.
Groups are taken to an observation tower to view machinery that separate, sort, and prepare materials to be sold to third-party manufacturers. The manufacturers recycle the materials into new end products. From the tower, viewers can also see the tipping floor, where truckloads of recyclables are delivered and dropped off. A brief presentation and educational video is shown to explain the purpose and benefits of recycling.
Tours typically last between 45 minutes and one hour. Teachers: when planning your tour, please make certain that you have adequate supervision for the children in your group. The MRF is a working waste transfer station and recycling center and safety is always a primary concern.
The MRF is located in Yonkers; Exit 6A/Stew Leonard Drive off the NYS Thruway/Interstate 87, just opposite Home Depot and Stew Leonard's. It is a busy transfer station that is closed to the public - except for pre-scheduled group tours.
A limited number of tours of the Material Recovery Facility (MRF) are available. please email for more information.
The MRF's Recycled Material Art Gallery
Westchester County’s new Recycled Material Art Gallery is located within the MRF’s Education Center and features artwork from six local artists. All the pieces are constructed out of recycled or reused materials, with the exception of hand-painted murals, which focus on environmental themes. The installation of the ‘Trash as Treasure’ themed exhibit took six months and thousands of pounds of various recycled and reused materials.
The Recycled Material Art Gallery was officially unveiled in celebration of Earth Day on April 22, 2014. In August 2015, the Westchester County Department of Environmental Facilities was recognized with the SWANA Bronze Excellence Award in the Education Program category by The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) for the gallery.
The graphic to the right is a free-style, hand painting entitled "Turtle Swim" by Piero Manrique. He used semi-gloss house paints.