Garbage sorting system
In the garbage or waste sorting facility , waste from the residual waste or yellow sack is sorted in order to send it to further use ( recycling ), to the landfill or to waste incineration .
The waste can be sorted by hand or by machines.
Manual sorting
With manual sorting, employees throw the garbage from a conveyor belt, over which garbage bags torn open by a drum run, into various shafts, which lead to containers for the recyclable materials old glass , waste paper , plastic waste , compost and residual waste to be dumped. In the case of purely machine sorting, this is done by the ripping drum combined with different devices that feed the garbage to different containers. There is no visual inspection here. Due to the different properties of the materials, the devices can recognize which recyclables are in the garbage.
In the latter variant, the substances u. a. separated in running water, whereby the density of the individual substances plays an important role (glass sinks the fastest, paper, however, very slowly). After this sorting step, for example, glass parts can be separated into green, brown and white glass using a laser .
For the health of the employees, there is an increased health risk ( respiratory diseases , poisoning ) in these facilities, despite breathing protection .
Fully automatic separation
Waste separation systems allow the fully automatic waste separation of household waste that has not been pre-sorted into several reusable fractions and one non-usable residual fraction.
You can reduce the burden of landfills, waste gases from waste incineration plants and the uneconomical separate removal of different colored collection bins, provided that there are sales opportunities for the fractions. The former Federal Minister of Economics, Michael Glos (2005–2009), spoke out in 2007 in favor of abolishing the dual system . In addition to the "energetic reuse" (incineration) of a large part of the separately collected packaging waste, which is also carried out at the DSD , sorting and recycling is a sensible alternative.
Regardless of the existing German special regulations for the disposal of packaging waste, European directives, in particular the Waste Framework Directive , which was implemented in Germany in the Recycling and Waste Act, require extensive waste separation and recycling, which can only be implemented using waste separation systems.
Modern automatic waste separation systems can separate the waste more correctly than humans would be able to do. They also have the advantage that people are not at risk from pathogens such as B. fungal spores, hazardous substances and a stressful work environment.
Pretreatment
In a mechanical-biological pre-treatment plant , commercial and household waste are separated by sieves and magnets for recycling; in particular, gas is obtained there through fermentation to generate electricity and heat.
Individual evidence
- ↑ British Conference on Urban Waste Management, p. 4 (PDF; 145 kB)
- ↑ Magazine for Work, Safety and Health, 2/01 ( Memento from January 17, 2002 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ WKO Foreign Trade Austria: Umwelttechnik.pdf ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Glos trashes the Green Dot
- ↑ Mechanical-biological or substance-specific waste treatment ( Memento from January 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
