Prince George County RHRF

OVERVIEW

RHRF Background

The Prince George County RHRF, which is located in Capitol Heights, Maryland has been operational since October 1993, spanning approximately 65,000 sqft. Prince George’s County owns the recycling facility; however, they have a contract with the Maryland Environmental Service to handle the day-to-day operations of the RHRF. During the past several years, this facility has undergone several changes/upgrades, including shifting to a single-stream facility in 2007. This shift to single-stream processing proved to be a breakthrough for the County’s recycling program. This step simplified the recycling process as it allowed residents to put all their recyclables in a single 64-gallon bin, which led to increased participation, and eventually, the RHRF’s efficiency increased. In August 2021, the facility underwent another series of transformations. The upgrades include the installation of 3 new optical sorters, an additional elliptical separator, a new plastics sorting line, four new 75 cubic yard storage bunkers, one new eddy current, and a new control panel. With these technological advancements, this County’s RHRF remains a premier facility in the region, which processes over 70,000 tons of recyclables annually.

TECH

Key Technologies

VIEW

Location

STEPS

Recycling Process

The recycling process at the facility starts with the collection trucks dropping the co- mingled materials. Once the materials arrive, they are weighed and offloaded onto the tipping area. Then the materials are loaded into a drum feeder that helps in regulating the flow of materials prior to entering the pre-sort phase. The pre-sort phase involves manual sorters who are responsible for removing the contaminants such as tanglers, bulky plastics, steel items etc. The rest of the materials are then loaded onto the conveyor for subsequent processing.

The next phase includes star screen segregation. These star screens utilize star shaped rotating discs to segregate recyclables based on density and size. Lightweight materials, such as paper and OCC, are pushed forwards, whereas heavier materials like plastics, aluminum, glass falls onto a different conveyor line. The segregated paper and OCC go through a final check by manual sorters to eliminate any contaminants before they are compressed and sent for baling. Additional set of star screens segregates glass from the remaining materials. The denser glass materials descend through the screens and are directed onto a designated glass conveyor belt and are conveyed to a receiving pit. After the glass items are removed, overhead magnets are used to remove steel items.

Ferrous items are lifted away from the conveyor belt and are dropped onto a storage pit below. Later, with the help of electromagnetic fields (i.e. eddy currents), aluminum items are separated and placed into a separate storage pit. Optical sorters are used for segregating and identifying plastics as per their resin type. Infrared technology segregates plastics based on their composition (#1 to 7) and air jets divert them into storage bunkers. A final round of manual sorting is carried out to remove any incorrectly routed recyclables or contaminants. The segregated materials are then compressed and sent for baling. These materials will be transported to manufacturers for reprocessing.