Patent ID: 8881913

Claim:
A waste sorting apparatus including: an input conveyor for conveying an input stream of mixed waste materials including items of a plurality of different types; a plurality of output conveyors for conveying respective output streams of said waste materials; and a plurality of operator stations for respective human operators, wherein the input conveyor and the plurality of output conveyors are configured to be accessible from each operator station to allow each operator to sort items of said different types from the input stream to respective ones of the output streams, each of the output streams including sorted items of a corresponding one of said types, and wherein the output conveyors include a plurality of far-side output conveyors on the far side of the input conveyor from the operator stations, at least substantially parallel to the input conveyer, and having open areas to receive items along a substantial portion of each far-side output conveyor's length adjacent each operator station, to allow each operator at each operator station to throw items to the far-side output conveyors over the input conveyor.