Trio of CRJ machines help Lancashire Renewables save costs

Lancashire Renewables Limited, owned by Lancashire County Council, operate two mechanical biological treatment plants (MBT) in Thornton and Farington.

The plants take in municipal waste from Lancashire residents for sorting and treatment, allowing for the recovery of recyclable materials.

At their Farington facility, they processed an average of 900T of comingled material (plastic, paper, card, cans and mixed glass) per week. This material is processed through their material recycling facility, with around 200T of material being rejected / deemed unrecyclable per week.

Initially, the reject material was not reprocessed, and was sent out at a cost to a third party. In an effort to reduce costs, Lancashire Renewables needed to remove as much reclaimable material from this 200T as possible.

The oversize from the trommel is then transferred to the picking station. Two operatives pick out any incompatible materials such as WEEE waste, metals and large bulky items. An overband magnet then removes any smaller metal pieces as the remaining material leaves the picking station. The WEEE waste and metals are collected separately and sent out to an off taker.

The smaller metals from the overband magnet are inspected for quality and if good enough it is transferred to be bailed. If the quality is poor, the material is reprocessed separately through the MRF, baled and sent to an off taker.

The remaining material leaving the picking station is fed directly into the Steelweld Eddy Current Separator. The Steelweld Strobe ECS uses powerful magnets to remove both ferrous and non-ferrous metals from the waste stream. The remaining non-metallic material is then transferred to another area where is it shredded and sent out as an RDF material.

The metals removed via the Steelweld Strobe ECS are assessed for quality, and if high enough, they will be bailed and sent out to an off taker.

As you can see in the video, the three pieces of equipment seamlessly integrate with each other, reducing the need for multi handling of material. By using this solution and separating out as much of the reclaimable materials as possible, Lancashire Renewables are able to reduce the amount of comingled reject waste they dispose via 3^rd part processors, which reduces their costs.