The rapidly evolving effects from the coronavirus pandemic has governments and companies enacting unprecedented measures to protect lives and livelihoods.
Students are learning remotely and many are working from home, if at all. Meanwhile, some essential services workers are receiving increases to their hourly rates as hazard pay.
TOMRA
New sorting technology can help overcome recycling disruptions
Deemed essential in many countries, the waste and recycling industries face virus-related impacts, as collection services and practices are being altered to protect workers. Receiving recyclable materials has a high rate of interaction with the public, and the recycling process often involves close worker interaction.
As a result, many locations have temporarily halted collection of a portion or all recyclable materials. To mitigate the inherent risks, the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued safe practices guidelines. At the time of writing, OHSA recommended that waste agencies handle solid waste with potential or known COVID-19 contamination like any other non-contaminated waste.
To minimise worker interaction, recycling companies are adjusting business practices, such as moving to staggered collection shifts. Manual sorter repositioning and staggered breaks have been implemented for social distancing.
Consumer buying and recycling habits in Europe have seen a spike in virgin PET demand, combined with decreased return rates, taxing the rPET market, the most widely recycled plastic in Europe. French recycling operations anticipate reduced collection rates for PE and PP as well, at a time when the market typically sees the start of peak season for rPET and recycled polyolefins.
Automation and technology advances
In times of social and business disruptions, people find ways to overcome challenges. The waste and recycling industries face the compounded issue of material and labour shortage trends for the foreseeable future, and recycling operations must make the most with the material they receive, with fewer workers.
Fabrizio Radice, Head of Global Sales and Marketing at TOMRA Sorting Recycling, said: “Advancements have been made in sorting circuit automation at both front and back ends, which have helped recycling operations decrease the number of manual sorters while increasing material purity.”
Equipment automation is helping to deliver better separation at the front end of the recycling circuit. The expanded use of more advanced front-end screening and separating equipment is helping to better classify paper, containers, glass and metals, based on size, colour, density and ballistic properties.
On the circuit’s back end, where material is sorted into final products, significant improvements in equipment technologies are helping to reduce the number of manual sorters required for final product quality. Newer laser technologies introduced over the last three years make it possible to remove more impurities from metal and paper products. Sensor improvements now enable optical sorters to pick out fine molecular differences in PET and paper materials to get a cleaner product sort.
Nick Doyle, Recycling Area Sales Manager, West North America for TOMRA Sorting Recycling, said: “By taking a systems-thinking approach to the entire circuit and upgrading both the front and back ends. We are helping MRF operators significantly decrease their manual sorter count, in some cases by 50 per cent or more. This is not only beneficial in current times with the coronavirus pandemic, it better utilises worker talents and saves operators substantial sums of money annually.”
Digital trends
Today, more of the recycling circuit’s components can be networked together to further advance efficiencies. Sorting machines can capture operating data, such as when the circuit is running, duration, output and service alerts, that can be accessed remotely via an Internet connection. This allows managers to employ fact-based decision making about the equipment and circuit, improve operating efficiency and increase sorting accuracy.
More available data combined with significantly improved computing capabilities has expanded the use of AI in sorting equipment to help recycling operations solve much more complex problems. Robotic sorters and sensor-based sorting equipment are now integrated with advanced machine learning capabilities to recognise patterns in the waste stream.
Doyle concluded: “If it hasn’t been upgraded within the last three years, it may not be as efficient as possible, and a company might be using more manual sorters than necessary. Investing in the circuit now, when volume and labour availability are down, can help to reduce the impact on the business and pay dividends when the business rebounds to pre-pandemic levels.”
