What is MSW?

Garbage is everywhere, and landfills are filling up quickly. In the U.S. alone, we produced 268 million tons of trash in 2018, and that number grows more every year. Municipal solid waste (MSW) is a term for non-hazardous garbage from households, businesses, and public institutions. MSW includes packaging, food, glass, plastics, compostables, and other household disposables. 

MSW recycling was introduced to combat the amount of garbage being thrown away and keep reusable items out of landfills. It involves sorting through municipal waste at a facility, salvaging items that can be broken down and reused, and sending items that can’t be sent to a landfill. Approximately 75% of all MSW is considered recyclable, but only about 30% of all these goods end up actually being recycled due to a lack of education about what can be recycled, negligence, lack of resources, or ineffective material recovery equipment.

Benefits of MSW Recycling

Like other types of recycling, MSW recycling is excellent for the environment and helps create a circular economy by increasing the longevity of products. 

Environmental

Waste is toxic, especially in large quantities. Recycling MSW helps save valuable landfill space and reduce overall waste. When not properly contained and managed, landfills contribute to the pollution of local water supplies and release methane gasses. 

Economic

Recycling MSW helps local and regional economies. Recycling facilities create jobs, offer more affordable materials for manufacturers, and help reduce production costs on reused goods. For example, in 2015, MSW recycling had an overall impact on the Texas economy of over $3.3 billion.

Energy Generation

Waste to Energy (WTE) is one of the more unique benefits of MSW recycling. WTE is the process of taking garbage from landfills and recycling facilities and converting it into energy. There are many ways to produce electricity using MSW. The most common ones include: 

• Incinerating MSW to convert water into steam to move turbine blades, generating electricity.
• Capturing methane gas from landfills.
• Decomposing waste through pyrolysis and collecting the biochar.

How do MSW Recycling Systems Work?

Residential consumers place their recyclable paper, metal, plastic, and glass materials into one bin for recycling. Then, a municipal solid waste truck collects recycled materials at the curb and transports them to a nearby material recovery facility (MRF). 

Once at the MRF, these materials are weighed and emptied onto the tipping floor. Then, the dumped materials undergo a presorting process, during which items like Christmas lights, plastic bags, styrofoam, and other nonrecyclable items are removed from the recycled goods, usually by human workers. Next, cardboard and old corrugated containers (e.g., pizza boxes) are removed manually or using an OCC screen and baled.

In a typical MSW recycling system, the remaining mixed recycled goods are loaded onto a feed conveyor and sent over a FINGER-SCREEN™ for primary screening. Finer materials, such as glass shards, are screened out, while larger ones are sent down the line for further processing. 

Sort Line One

After being sent over the screen, larger items are picked and sorted manually into containers on a longer pick line. Materials are sorted by type into containers to be baled and shipped for reuse, resale, or disposal. 

Sort Line Two

On the second line, the finer materials are sent down a conveyor with a crossbelt magnet to remove ferrous metals before being screened further by a rotary trommel screen or secondary FINGER-SCREEN™. These fines are then removed and baled for sale and reuse. The materials that aren’t screened out are sorted manually and then sent through a DE-STONER® Air Classifier to separate materials by density.

Recover More MSW with GK Recycling Systems

GK Systems develops MSW recycling systems that effectively maximize material recovery by sorting your recoverable products. Contact us, and we’ll help you develop a profitable MSW system!