Alabama recycling center receives grant for sorting system

Workers at the Florence Recycling Center, Alabama, will no longer have to sort recyclables by hand thanks to a grant from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management for a new $486,000 FiberSort sorting system that is being installed at the recycling center, according to a Times Daily report.

With the new sorting system, recyclables--paper, plastic, cardboard--will be loaded into a pit and then fed onto a conveyor for transport to an optical sorter that will separate paper from other items.

The materials go across a vibrating screen that separates the materials. Fiber, paper and cardboard will go to one conveyor belt, and bottles and cans will move to another belt, Florence Solid Waste manager David Koonce told the newspaper.

Paper products will come directly off the conveyor belt and go into a baler.

Florence’s Recycling Coordinator Rachel Mansell told the newspaper half of the recyclables that come into the center are cardboard and mixed paper.

Florence Solid Waste Department also contributed to the purchase of the new sorting system, which will be installed at the recycling center this month.