Athens Sun Valley RHRF

STEPS

Recycling Process

Athens Sun Valley recycling facility employs a fully integrated and technology driven approach to effectively separate and recover recyclables. Operations commence at the scale house, where the incoming and outgoing materials are weighed once the collection trucks enter the premise. Underground digitized scales integrated with RFID technology capture the weight of each load rapidly and precisely. Once the incoming materials are weighed, the collection trucks head towards the designated tipping zone where the trucks offload their materials. Ceiling-mounted fans circulate fresh air indoors, and odor is mitigated using high-pressure sprayers. Manual sorters examine the incoming stream visually and route them to the appropriate presorting zones. Such an enclosed setup helps in reducing environmental impacts on neighboring communities while maintaining safety and optimized material flow.

From the tipping floor, the materials are conveyed to a pre-sort system where a rotating drum-based bag breaker is placed to tear open the plastic bags and discharge their contents. This stage is crucial mainly because plastic bags can often result in mechanical obstruction within the facility. Pre-sorters then remove large and bulky materials that could jam the equipment. The materials are then conveyed onto a debris roll screen, designed to accurately segregate OCC from other materials. Due to its high market value, corrugated cardboards are separated at an early stage to enhance efficiency. Organic fines are removed. For further processing, smaller materials travel through the debris screen. The denser material segregator utilizes NIHOT technology which categorizes items based on density. This equipment features air blowers and a rotating drum, effectively segregating paper (fiber), large plastics, and containers, while heavier and denser materials fall through for further processing.

After the density-based segregation, containers and paper segregation starts. A BHS polishing screen separates containers from plastic and paper and fines drops through. Small and wet paper are removed with the help of a Fiber Pure screen. Optical sorters separate clean paper and then it goes through manual sorting and the sorters remove any contaminated fibers to maintain high quality fiber bales. Next, metals and plastics continue to move forward to the next stage, where strong magnets separate metals from other materials. An advanced optical sorting unit then utilizes infrared technology and detects different grades of plastics. This stage focuses on various grades of plastics such as PET, HDPE, mixed plastic, enhancing material recovery and reducing contamination. Next up is the aluminum separator that separates aluminum. In this facility one of the most innovative phases in the sorting process is the application of AI. MAX AI technology uses machine learning to detect and segregate plastics in real time. The autonomous quality control equipment removes contaminants from the PET line. It drops materials into three different channels achieving an average throughput of 65 picks/minute.

After the density-based segregation, containers and paper segregation starts. A BHS polishing screen separates containers from plastic and paper and fines drops through. Small and wet paper are removed with the help of a Fiber Pure screen. Optical sorters separate clean paper and then it goes through manual sorting and the sorters remove any contaminated fibers to maintain high quality fiber bales. Next, metals and plastics continue to move forward to the next stage, where strong magnets separate metals from other materials. An advanced optical sorting unit then utilizes infrared technology and detects different grades of plastics. This stage focuses on various grades of plastics such as PET, HDPE, mixed plastic, enhancing material recovery and reducing contamination. Next up is the aluminum separator that separates aluminum. In this facility one of the most innovative phases in the sorting process is the application of AI. MAX AI technology uses machine learning to detect and segregate plastics in real time. The autonomous quality control equipment removes contaminants from the PET line. It drops materials into three different channels achieving an average throughput of 65 picks/minute.

Once the materials have passed through several stages of sorting and processing, the recyclables are sent for baling and shipping. The baler features two 100-horsepower engines which compacts recovered items into compressed bales. Each bale weighs approximately 1,500 pounds. This RHRF generates fifteen different categories of bales and around 200 bales are shipped to producers on a daily basis.