Shanks Waste Management Ltd., based in the United Kingdom, has opened its waste treatment facility in South Kirkby, England. The company was awarded a waste management contract for the city of Wakefield, England, to process up to 230,000 tonnes annually of residual waste and recycling from homes and businesses in the Wakefield District. Plessissville, Quebec-based Machinex has provided two sorting systems for the facility that includes the latest technologies, according to the supplier.
This facility is among the most sophisticated of its kind in the U.K., Machinex says. It is expected to increase the recycling rate of the Wakefield District, diverting around 95% of the community’s waste from landfill.
The first system supplied by Machinex is a mixed dry recyclables (MDR) sorting plant that annually segregates approximately 36,000 tonnes of plastic, glass, metal containers, paper and cardboard at a capacity of 19 tonnes per hour. A purity rate of 95% will be achieved using Machinex screens, optical sorters, a glass clean-up system, an air capture system for plastic film, ferrous magnets and a eddy current system for nonferrous metals, the supplier says.
The second system from Machinex segregates a variety of materials from residual waste at a rated capacity of 30 tonnes per hour. The main goal of this system is to obtain a final fraction that meets the standards to produce refuse derived fuel (RDF). The priority is to remove RDF contaminants by maximizing organics recovery and ferrous and nonferrous metals recovery, Machinex says.
The organic fraction is segregated from other waste using a vibratory screen and then treated using an autoclave before it is sent to an anaerobic digestion plant.
Ferrous and nonferrous metals, plastic film, paper and plastics can be sorted using a combination of air treatment systems, ballistic separators, optical units, magnets, eddy currents and other sorting equipment.
Machinex says its technology allows Shanks the flexibility to select the most appropriate recyclables to recover according to market values and the desired calorific value of the RDF generated.
Jonathan Menard, project director at Machinex, says, "I’m extremely proud to say that Machinex admirably distinguished itself in the Shanks Wakefield project. All the acceptance tests have been passed, and the two systems were commissioned on time."
Nigel Catling, capital infrastructure director at Shanks, says, "Machinex worked closely with the Shanks team and Wakefield Council to deliver two efficient facilities at South Kirkby. Both of these facilities were swiftly brought into use, delivering good throughputs and quality materials. We are now working on optimising the facilities to fulfill their full potential."
