I led a design/build team of a recycling system for the reduction, segregation and classification of the bottom and fly ashes derived from Municipal Waste to Energy (WTE) mass burn incinerators. WTE reduces the volume of the trash system from about 80-90%.
We were able to process about 99.8% of that material into four derived products. Cleaned ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals (brass, copper and aluminum-pot metals), a treated aggregate for construction fill and the unburned sent back to the incinerator. We did this at a process rate of up to 125 tons per hour.
The process to single source recycle is very costly because it takes lots of labor to effectively separate to defined product streams and in the case of plastics with the cost of oil plummeting, it does not benefit the plastics makers economically.
Why did it not go forward in a big way back then? Environmentalists.
We thought we were doing good to resolve our problems in opening and permitting new land fills but we quickly learned that we did nothing more than to take away an issue for them to raise money for. Essentially, they don’t give a rip about the environment but only their own pockets.
Thanks for mentioning this. I was wondering how much a WTE burn could help out.
It’s also quite revealing the environmentalist’s take on it from your perspective.
I’m not an environmentalist per se, but I do believe most Conservatives believe in being prudent and trying to avoid negative impacts on the environment as a course of a sound business model.
We just don’t demagogue the issue like the Left.