Shanks Waste Management Selects Machinex

Shanks Waste Management Ltd. has chosen Machinex Industries Inc. to provide the sorting equipment for residual waste and recyclables at its new residual waste treatment facility in South Kirkby, U.K. The Machinex custom made sorting systems are due to be completed in 2015.

When completed, the Shanks facility will process up to 230,000 metric tons per year of residual waste from homes in the Wakefield District. In this project, Machinex will design, manufacture and install two state-of-the-art sorting systems.

The first system is a mixed dry recyclables (MDR) sorting plant that will segregate and process around 36,000 metric tons of plastic, glass, metal containers, paper and old corrugated containers (19 metric tons per hour) per year. Machinex notes that the system will allow for a purity rate of 95 percent. The equipment to be installed will include Machinex screens, optical sorting and a glass clean up system, an air capture system for plastic film, ferrous magnets and non ferrous eddy-current.

Machinex’s second system from Machinex will segregate a variety of materials from residual waste at 30 metric tons per hour. The main goal of this system is to obtain a final fraction that meets the standards to produce refuse derived fuel (RDF). The priority is to remove RDF contaminants by maximizing organics recovery and ferrous and non-ferrous metals recovery. The organic fraction will be segregated from other waste by a trommel and then be treated using an autoclave before it is sent to an anaerobic digestion plant.

Ferrous, nonferrous metals, plastic film, paper and plastics will be sorted by a combination of air treatment systems, ballistic separators, optical units, magnets, eddy currents and other sorting equipment. The proposed solution allows flexibility, Machinex says; the plant operator can select the most appropriate recyclables to be recovered according to market values and the desired calorific value of the RDF generated.

Pierre Paré, CEO of Machinex Group, says: “It is an honor to have been selected and we are more than happy to work with Shanks Waste Management on this innovative waste treatment facility. This is a great opportunity for Machinex, in the UK market, to showcase our custom design capability.”

Commenting on the development Shanks’ U.K. Managing Director Ian Goodfellow, says, “We selected Machinex as we knew they could meet our expectations since having demonstrated their expertise and professionalism in other projects.”