Cawleys pioneer automated sorting of commercial & industrial waste

Published: 24/04/2009
Category: Industry

Joint venture company OKLM Recycling Technology Limited was appointed by Cawleys to design, build and install the new multi-million pound sorting facility to process 30 tonnes an hour of C&I waste at their Luton site.

Background

Cawleys is a family-owned and operated waste management company dedicated to recycling and diverting waste away from landfill. It constructed its first Waste Recycling Factory in Luton during the 1970s, since when its business has expanded significantly.

Today Cawleys has depots in Luton (Head Office), Milton Keynes and Wellingborough enabling it to cover Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire and London. The company also offers a national waste collection and recycling service through a network of sub-contractors, an equipment hire service, and liquid and chemical waste disposal.

Its latest significant investment, a multi-million pound sorting facility for commercial and industrial (C&I) waste, is the first of its kind in the UK to feature automated separation of paper from this waste stream.

New sorting facility

Joint venture company OKLM Recycling Technology Limited was appointed by Cawleys to design, build and install the new multi-million pound sorting facility to process 30 tonnes an hour of C&I waste at their Luton site.

C&I waste is a more complex materials stream than general household waste because it is derived from multiple sources – such as factories, retail outlets, offices, warehouses, etc. Depending on the sources, the composition of C&I waste can be up to 64% paper or largely comprise building rubble so the screening process within the system must be highly flexible. Cawleys wanted a facility that could accommodate this variability - which might include oversized items, packaging material and pallets, skip waste and general office waste – and which could separate paper to the required quantity and quality for high value reprocessing.

OKLM Recycling Technology Limited delivered a facility that uses automation wherever possible to deliver consistent streams of recyclates, including paper. A trommel is used as the primary screen to allow the system to receive 30tph of input materials over a single line. This is achievable because the giant drum at Cawleys is able to process very large volumes of C&I waste and separates it into different fractions. Each fraction is then processed to extract valuable recyclables such as ferrous and non-ferrous metals, paper, card, mixed plastics, timber and hardcore.

Hand picking is used to remove larger pieces from the conveyors, but automation takes the central role across the system. Overband magnets are used to extract the ferrous fraction and a ballistic air separator sorts out lighter materials, such as packaging film and paper, from the heavier items. The lighter materials are then passed through two TITECH optical sorting systems to separate out the mixed plastics and the paper for further reprocessing.

“We specified TITECH polysort systems because they are compact in design and very accurate in operation,” says Murray Coleman, the OKLM project manager for the Cawley plant. “They offer the best purity and hit rates of any available sorting technology, which results in a greater recovery of valuable recyclable materials for the operator. In addition, the TITECH units can process far greater material volumes by area than is possible using manual techniques and are capable of operating 24/7 if necessary.”

The judicious application of the latest automated sorting technology means Cawleys’ new sorting facility is able to process an impressive 30 tonnes of highly variable C&I waste per hour.

Andrew Pegg, Recycling Manager at Cawleys, said: “The new automated plant has really opened our eyes to the possibilities of how much more value we can get out of the C&I waste stream. We will certainly be looking at how we can use TITECH sorting systems on other materials streams, such as heavy plastics.”

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