Patent ID: 7503513

Claim:
A method of separating and reusing or recycling materials in a recycling operation based on BTU component content comprising the steps of: shredding a stream of materials comprising non-sorted, heterogeneous, recycled materials; separating the stream of materials into heavy materials and light materials with a separator, the separator discharging the light materials in a light material stream and the heavy materials in a heavy material stream; magnetically separating ferrous and non-ferrous materials from the heavy material stream; discharging the non-ferrous materials to a screen for further separation; processing the light materials through a rotary trommel and a non-ferrous metal separator to separate the light materials into fine materials, coarse materials, and non-ferrous metal materials, the coarse materials having a BTU component; separating low density material from the coarse materials with a low density separator, thereby increasing the BTU component content per unit of volume of the coarse materials; and producing a fuel substance using the coarse materials with the low density material removed.