Design prototype - draft copy, not for publication
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Equipment guides for recycling plants

What do you need to pull out of your stream?

Recyclers Guide explains the machines that separate a mixed recycling stream: how each one works, where it fits, what drives its size and cost, and what to ask before you buy.

Start with aluminum recovery Find manufacturers
Blue Remcon sorting-line conveyors with yellow access stairs inside a recycling facility.
Conveyors and sorting-line structure. Photo: Remcon Equipment.
Where each material leaves a simplified sort line A mixed stream flows down a channel. Film leaves first at pre-sort and air systems, fiber at the screens, glass at a fines screen, ferrous metal at a magnet and aluminum at an eddy current separator. Remaining material continues to sensor sorters. AluminumLive guide
Figure 1. Where each material leaves a simplified sort line. Real plants differ in the order, the equipment and the number of stages. Each colour and shape marks one material on every page of this guide. This schematic is not a diagram of the photographed installation.

Start with your problem

In preparation

  • Glass cleanup Get paper, plastic and ceramics out of glass. Metal has its own page: non-ferrous metal out of glass cullet.
  • Fiber quality Keep containers, film and fines out of paper and cardboard bales.
  • Film removal Stop bags and film from wrapping screens and riding into fiber.
  • Ferrous recovery Pull steel cans and other ferrous metal out early, before it damages equipment downstream.

Written for plant owners and operators, plant engineers, equipment buyers and system integrators, and for anyone researching a new line.

Every separator acts on a physical difference

A magnet pulls on magnetic metal. An eddy current separator pushes hardest on pieces that conduct well for their weight. A sensor-based sorter reads a property, then fires air. Knowing which difference a machine acts on tells you what it can pull out, and what it will miss.

Explore the equipment and the principle behind it.

Conceptual cutaway showing a magnetic rotor inside the head drum and two discharge paths.AI-generated concept · not to scale

Eddy current separation

Electrical conductivity relative to density.

 Concept schematic · not to scale

Sensor-based sorting

Reads a property, then separates with air.

 Remcon overhead magnetic separator mounted above a sort conveyor.Photo: Remcon Equipment

Magnetic separation

Removes steel and iron before the separator.

 Blue and yellow Remcon trommel screen in the shop before delivery.Photo: Remcon Equipment

Screening

Splits the feed into size ranges.
Technology index (stated criteria: what it acts on, what it mainly targets)A reference for air and vacuum systems is in preparation.
TechnologySeparates byMain targets
Eddy current separation Electrical conductivity relative to density Aluminum and other non-ferrous metal
Magnetic separation Magnetic attraction Steel and iron
Sensor-based sorting What a sensor reads: near-infrared spectrum, colour, shape or metal content Plastics by resin, fiber grades, metals by type
Screens Size and shape: what rides over, what falls through Cardboard and paper, glass fines
Air and vacuum systems How light and flat a piece is Film and light paper

Tools that show their working

Calculator

Live

Belt feed rate

Starting example (hypothetical inputs)

100 ft/min, 0.5 ft², 10 lb/ft³: 3,000 ft³/h, 15.0 US tons/h

Q = A × v × 60

Open the calculator

Inquiry

Preview

RFQ builder

At the end of the aluminum guide. The form asks for:

  • your stream
  • the feed-rate range
  • the size range
  • the purity your metal buyer requires
  • whether ferrous metal is removed upstream

You tick each recipient before you send.

Build an aluminum RFQ

Reference

Live

Bulk density

One row of the table (approximate published figure)

Aluminum cans, loose: about 1.7 to 3.4 lb/ft³

Source: US EPA, 2016 and 2006

Open the reference

Who makes it

Browse the directory

How listings work

Each listing is compiled from the company's own published material, and we do not test equipment. When you filter the directory, listings that do not list the technology or material you ticked move to a collapsed group at the end. The rest are ordered by how many of your filters each one matches, and ties rotate daily. Payments and business relationships are not inputs to the order. The card below is a made-up example, not a real company. The directory itself lists real companies, each compiled from its own published material.

How the directory is ordered

Who publishes this. Recyclers Guide is published by [LLC name], an affiliate of Remcon Equipment, Inc. Remcon designs and builds conveyors and eddy current separator systems around rotors or complete separators made by others, builds overhead magnet units, magnetic head pulleys and trommels, resells screens and feeders, and integrates equipment discussed on this site.

Sample listing

Sample Air Systems LLC

Builds film vacuum and air separation systems.

Technologies
Air and vacuum systems
Recovers
FilmFiber
Source streams
Single-stream
Regions
North America
Compiled from
Manufacturer website, read [date]
What each listing shows, on a made-up example. Not a real company.

How this guide is written