The recycling industry is vast and in today’s day and age, more essential than ever. Human beings produce a truly staggering quantity of waste every year. This is an untenable societal trend and needs to be counteracted by putting political pressure on big business owners and changing industrial processes. In the meantime, the waste that we produce must be recycled so that it does not end up clogging up oceans or drifting forlornly across huge landfill sites. Here are some of the specialist equipment that is used in the recycling industry.
Baling Machines
Baling machines take processed waste and compress it into an incredibly dense ‘bale’. Baled material is far more space-efficient than loose material and also a great deal safer to transport. There are many different kinds of baling machine, but they all share a few common traits. All baling machines use a powerful piston to compress waste and are made of immensely heavy-duty materials. Many balers also tie the finished bales together using wire automatically. For examples of different kinds of baler available on the market, check out recyclingbalers.com.
Conveyors
Conveyor belts are – as the name suggests – used to convey items from place to place in a recycling plant. The use of the conveyor belt in an industrial setting was pioneered by American industrialist Henry Ford. He devised a way of quickly and cheaply manufacturing cars by having workers stationed along a conveyor – each completing one task before the car chassis moved on to the next worker. Recycling plants use conveyor belt systems in much the same way. Waste moves along a conveyor past ‘pickers’, who each pick out one kind of material by eye or using electromagnets.
Electromagnets
Electromagnets can develop a magnetic field when power is passed through them. They can be immensely powerful. In the recycling industry, electromagnets are used to separate metal items from non-metal items. Metal is extremely reusable – with some kinds being recyclable many, many times over.
Forklift Trucks
Moving heavy, dense bales of material would be impossible without forklift trucks. The first forklift trucks were developed during the First World War – when increased mechanization in industry was driven by the exodus of huge portions of the population to France, Belgium, and Gallipoli. Forklift trucks are absolutely essential pieces of gear in the recycling industry. All but the smallest plants make use of them.
Refuse Derived Fuel Equipment
Waste materials can be used to produce fuel. The use of refuse-derived fuel can help to reduce societal reliance upon fossil fuels, which are both finite and intensely polluting. Refuse-derived duel is often used in powerplants and cement kilns as an alternative to oil and coal. The equipment needed to process recycled materials into usable fuel is complex. Waste needs to be separated and go through several shredding stages, eventually resulting in a finely shredded combustible material. You wouldn’t be able to use these materials to run your car, as they need a relatively high temperature in order to combust.
