4 questions about sorting technology at MRFs

1. What challenges do material recovery facilities (MRFs) and plastic recycling facilities (PRFs) currently face?

MRFs again are facing single-digit pricing on plastic such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polypropylene tubs and lids this year, and we saw this same trend last year.

Facilities also face challenges in recovered fiber sales due to a slowdown in the box business.

In all cases, having the cleanest possible grades to take to market is essential. By delivering clean material, MRF and PRF operators have the best opportunities to maintain movement in their commodity sales.

2. What technological developments do you see around the world?

With installations located across the globe, Steinert sees many consistent trends among our customers. Chief among those are the need to increase recovery rates and the demand for purity in recovered materials.

Ensuring every bit of recoverable material gets captured during processing is more essential today than ever. Processors need to reduce residual rates for many reasons, but the demand to maximize recovery is very clear.

Within recovered material streams, we see the demand to create a true specification raw material as feedstock for the upstream users as paramount. Contamination no longer is tolerable for many consumers, so to ensure good and reliable markets, delivering consistent chemistry and cleanliness is vital.

3. Which technologies are applied in a PRF?

While even, steady feeding is essential, so are the first steps of overband magnets to remove ferrous material and impurities, followed by eddy currents to separate used beverage cans (UBCs) and other nonferrous metals.

Steinert’s UniSort PR EVO 5.0 then separates the plastics, paper and organics. The unit excels at challenging sorting such as mono- and multilayer plastics. With the ability to combine near-infrared capabilities with artificial intelligence (AI), Steinert units offer both enhanced recovery rates and purity for each commodity grade in the stream.

4. What benefit does AI bring to the sorting process?

Steinert’s Intelligent Object Identifier, an AI-supported object identification system for sorting machines, detects and isolates objects using optically detectable characteristics. These additional distinguishing features make for a more stable sorting process, while also improving sorting results. For example, it allows easy sorting of thermoforms from other PET and the sorting of black plastics by polymer type.

It can be used as a last-chance quality control method, ensuring a higher recovery rate while keeping fewer valuable recyclables out of the residue line.

Additionally, AI can help with auditable recycling analytics data that can break down material types, recovery and AI’s performance to help with process improvement. AI is known to perform and increase pick percentage over manual picks.