WEEE Waste Plastic and SRF Recovery
To assist with material decontamination of the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) material processed at Enva’s plastic recycling and recovery facility in Lincolnshire, UK. Enva employed the services of Impact Air Systems to provide a material separation solution that would remove contamination, improve current capacity, and enable operations to continue to grow.
Enva recycles and recovers a large percentage of small domestic WEEE material generated annually in the UK. Its facilities around the UK and Ireland recycle and recover materials ranging from plastics, metals, wood, oil, glass aggregates for re-use in manufacturing and for energy conversion.
Enva’s sink float system, used for the processing of plastics, was being compromised with heavy contamination from the material passing through it, so a density separation system was required to remove the light fibres, dust, and other residue from the rigid plastic material stream. The contaminated material was sent to Impact’s test facility for a trial run through the Zigzag Air Classifier (ZAC), a tried and tested solution, popular in the recycling and resource recovery industry for its effective ability to utilise air technology and density separation to clean valuable materials from contaminants.
Impact’s test facility provided outstanding results, with the input material being cleaned to an exceptional level, which ultimately resulted in the sale of a ZAC800.
For the plastic processing company, the ZAC800 handles up to 14 tonnes per hour at a bulk density of 350kg/m³, however as the ZAC is also available in a 1200mm wide version, compared to the 800mm, and is therefore capable of processing material at an even higher throughput.
Project Manager, James Anderson commented on the installation: “As an existing customer of Impact Air Systems, it was a natural decision to contact them with regards to the additional requirements of the plastic recovery process. We have a great relationship with Impact and have always been more than satisfied with their solutions. The ZAC works extremely well as part of our process and only took a week to install. The results are impressive and have resolved the issues we were experiencing with the high volume of contaminants hindering the sink float process. The ZAC has also decreased costs due to the contaminants/SRF material being removed earlier in the process before getting wet. We highly recommend Impact’s ZAC for its ability to recover our materials effectively, its low maintenance, ease of use and quick return on investment of around 8 months.”
Carl Henson, Technical Sales Manager for Impact Air Systems, sold the system to Enva and said about the solution: “ENVA’s efforts in diverting valuable material from landfill are commendable, so to be involved with the upgrades of its recovery process was a privilege. The ZAC800 was the obvious solution to meet Enva’s requirements of decontaminating the WEEE material stream and the results spoke for themselves. The ZAC has many features that ensures it is robust, reliable, easy to maintain for the customer, making is an easy choice. Quick access points also allow for unblocking if larger parts manage to make their way through to the ZAC or if there is a material build up. This is the ultimate solution for material recovery and with the return on investment being so quick, our customers are always more than satisfied.”
Impact Air Systems has developed various cost-efficient systems for the recycling industry around the world. Its innovative system design and well-engineered components ensure maximum efficiency, speeding up the sorting task, improving the throughput and quality of recycled material grades.
Its separation systems provide convenient solutions for waste recovery and sorting scenarios across the waste management sector, making processes efficient and cost effective.
Source: Impact Air Systems Ltd (Leicester, England, February 17, 2022)
