What happens to the stuff you recycle?

For most people who frequent our local elementary schools with empty milk cartons, wine bottles and pickle jars as well as newspapers and cardboard boxes, it ends there, without wondering where the materials go from there.

Then there are the odd people - such as MidWeek editor Don Chapman and myself - who can’t help wondering exactly what happens to that old newspaper or used ketchup bottle.

To get the proper answer, we followed the bins to Hawaii Recovery System’s processing and sorting facility on Sand Island.