RECYCLINGTHE PROCESS BY ANJALI NIVEDHA
Not something we haven’t heard of, seen icons and visuals of, been the target for its cam- paigns, or a solution/part of the resolution of every Climate change conference ever. We all know what It is... We all have been learning about it forever. But do we really understand what it means? For all we know we are hit with Dopamine every time we take that extra step to drop the respective wastes in their color coded garbage can. But, what happens after that? What happens after you are done feeling accomplished a favour for the next genera- tions.
In short, how does recycling work.
Lets see cover this with a simplistic approach.
Your Garbage goes to the MRF – Material Recovery Facility. This is where the Magic happens – Wealth out of waste. There are typically 2 types of MRFs – Single Stream Recycling Plant & Dual Stream Recycling plants. As the naming of process is based on the division of the Garbage – Single or Double. Single stream is where the recycling does not branch out into various other processes and streams. Everything is just throw into the same conveyor belt and is sorted by High tech Machines & People. A well processed recyclable garbage would benefit from this process. Less than 50% of MRFs use this method, but the percentage is increasing.
In double stream recycling process the Garbage is separated into 2 major streams – Mixed Paper & ‘Everything Else...’ yeah... That’s what it’s called.
These are made sure they never get mixed, from their Initial transport through the process and in the final output; Separate Bins, etc, to maintain the efficiency of the recycling and the percentage of impurities. The Bins involved in this process of sorting is what you see com- monly in your Beach, streets, etc, asking you to sort the Garbage right from the Initial stage.
Single Stream Recycling Plant:
Single Stream Recycling Plant focuses on 4 types of wastes: -Paper
-Steel
-Glass
-Aluminium -Plastics.
Each have their own method of sorting & extraction. Lets see the Process.
Rotary Screen Separators:
This is to separate Lighter Materials like Paper & Cardboard outta the pile. A Fast rotating series of Wheels arranges in a 45 Degree angle to each other, help in generating a lift in the conveyor, that blows away the Paper & Cardboard from the Heavier material like Aluminium Cans and Others. The Process is precise and can do a decent job in separating paper from this Pile.
Now that Paper is gone, it’s the other 4 Left.
Cross Belt Magnet:
You saw this coming, didn’t you? From Toy story to any scene involving a MRF has this horror of a Device. This helps in separating the Magnetic Material from the Pile – which means steel like material says goodbye to the pile. But Aluminium stays in the pile as it is not magnetic in natural conditions (or at least in these conditions).
Air Classifier:
A chamber with fast spinning air... although not the best Skydive simulator does a good job in separating the Heavy from the Light. More specifically – Glass from the Pile, leaving light materials like Aluminium and Plastic to fly off into a top layer nozzle while the Glass falls. Why? Gravity.
Eddy Current Separator:
Remember Aluminium? He aint got an escape now. (Sorry, assuming he is a Male).
The powerful magnetic field – (the Induction Field) generated through the fast spinning rotors, removes the Aluminium from the Plastic. This high intensity is what is needed to get them magnetic and for a smooth separation process. This leaves us with plastic.
Plastic separation:
Plastics are various kinds of Carbons Compounds. We classified each of those com- pounds into, typically, 6 types – coded from 1 – 7. These include PVCs, Polymers, Styro- foams, etc.
Separating the plastics based on these codes is crucial as they re built for various purpos- es, have different boiling points, characteristic, etc. Hence, it is good to separate them.
These are usually Hand picked by labours but in modern advancements we have infrared light Tech machines & methods that separate these pounds based on their reflections. The separation & sorting happens with air blowing away the plastics at intervals in the Conveyors.
Why bother?
World & matter in it is finite. We need sustainable solutions. While we research and hit boundaries of science to find such solutions, its in our hands to improvise and survive with what we have,... Like we always have.
Almost Every single material in this gets a new life. A New purpose. By doing this we give our own next gens a chance to survive longer.
So just like the garbage we throw, we too have a new purpose to live on... To help the next gen have everything you did...
