Sorting Plants for Municipal Solid Waste

STADLER stands for individually planned, turnkey sorting plants for municipal solid waste with a processing capacity of 40,000 t/year up to high-capacity plants with a capacity of 1,000,000 t/year, such as the one we recently successfully constructed in Spain.

Municipal solid waste sorting with STADLER

STADLER experience

“Thanks to over 60 plants realised around the world to date, STADLER possesses broad expertise and a high level of experience in the field of municipal solid waste processing.”

Sorting of municipal solid waste with STADLER

Material properties

Municipal solid waste consists of all types of waste generated in the household. In addition to organic waste such as leftover food, it also includes a wide variety of recyclable materials. This type of diverse material composition, combined with highly varied density between 100 and 300 kg/m³ represents a particular challenge for such plants, as it simultaneously demands a high degree of plant flexibility and robustness.

Example process description for an automated sorting plant for municipal solid waste with manual re-sorting:

After infeed dosing, the material is separated into different grain sizes according to shape (flat [2D], rolling [3D], screening) by various screening processes via our trommel screen and ballistic separator machinery. In order to achieve the maximum possible sorting purity, large-area films are separated from the material flows with the aid of windshifters. This significantly improves subsequent sorting using near infrared technology (NIR). In combination with magnetic and eddy current process, the desired high output qualities are achieved. Following manual quality controlling, the material is finally separated into fractions, collected in product bunkers and baled to reduce volume for storage and transport.

Example process description for a fully automatic municipal solid waste sorting plant:

Here, the waste is initially uniformly fed into the plant via a feed dosing system. Organic constituents, plastic packaging and cans are separated out by means of screening and NIR processes, as well as magnets. During the next step, we separate the various polymers and Tetrapak elements into different types of plastic using a special optical recognition matrix. This is followed by the extraction of paper, as well as non-ferrous metals. The organic fraction is stabilised by means of a biological process and processed into high-quality compost material. A further option is to use the organic fraction for alternative power generation in an anaerobic fermentation plant.