Baltimore RHRF

STEPS

Recycling Process

Once the collection truck with recyclable materials arrives at the RHRF, the mixed recyclables are offloaded onto the tipping area. Then a front-end loader conveys the recyclables onto the main conveyor track from where the main automated sorting process begins. The process begins with a pre-sort station where manual sorters remove non-recyclables and contaminants to increase effectiveness of subsequent recycling processes and to ensure the quality of sorted recyclables. 

After the initial (manual) sort, the recyclables proceed through a series of mechanical sorting equipment. The initial mechanical stage employs an inclined rotating star screen engineered to extract cardboard materials (OCC). These star screens allow OCC to pass smoothly over the top to a designated conveyor line which takes the OCC to a storage area (bunker) for interim storage before baling. In parallel smaller and denser recyclables fall through the openings in the screens and continue to move along the process.

The next stage segregates paper (fiber) from the mixed stream. As the mixed recyclables move along the conveyor line, fiber is separated from containers and moved into a separate storage bunker for baling in a subsequent step. The remaining stream now consist of glass, metals and plastics which then enters a glass breaking machine. The steel star screens break the glass containers allowing the glass fragments to drop through which will be collected separately, whereas the remaining materials proceed along the process.

Following stages prioritize on separating plastics and metals. An optical sorter fitted with an electronic scanner detects PET plastics. Once identified, directed air jets are initiated to detect PET items onto a designated conveyor belt. Remaining plastic categories are removed by manual sorters at a later stage. The metallic materials are then passed through magnetic sorting equipment which recovers ferrous materials (steel cans) and diverts them to a bunker for baling later. For segregating non-ferrous materials like aluminum, the facility uses an eddy current equipment which produces a magnetic field to divert aluminum cans into a specific storage bunker for collection.

Once the segregation process is finished, each recyclable material group (OCC, paper, other plastics, aluminum, steel, glass and PET) is compressed into dense block-shaped bales and tied using wire. These baled materials are transported to a staging zone with the help of a forklift, where they remain until transported. Later these baled materials are shipped to downstream industry partners across domestic and global market.