Patent ID: 9649666
Date: 2017-05-16
CPC Classifications: B02C,B03B,B03C,B07B,Y02E,Y02W

Claim:
1. A method for recovering recyclable materials from mixed solid waste stream using optical sorters, comprising: providing a mixed waste stream comprising high value recyclable material including paper and rigid plastic, wherein the mixed waste stream includes at least 20% by weight of low value material selected from the group consisting of wet organics, green waste, food waste, grit, fines less than 1 inch, asphalt, concrete, textiles, wood, rubber, film plastic, PVC, foil, rock, used consumer products, low value glass, composite materials, and combinations of these; fractionating the mixed waste stream by size by performing an upper size cut and a lower size cut to produce a sized waste stream, the sized waste stream having a size range where the ratio of an upper cut-off to a lower cut-off is less than 8; fractionating the sized waste stream by density to produce an intermediate stream enriched in the paper and plastic; sorting the intermediate stream using a plurality of optical sorters configured to produce a sorted paper material and/or a sorted plastic material.