As the world becomes more and more conscious of the environment, recycling has become increasingly popular. Many countries, including the United States, have mandated laws and programs to help protect the planet. One way to do so is through innovative technologies that recycle plastics and other materials, making them into new products that we need. These machines make the process much easier, and allow recycling companies to produce more products in less time and with less energy.

A typical recycling machine has a conveyor belt that moves a mixture of different items from one location to another. Depending on the material, it is put through a different type of machine for processing. The machines can grind the items, separate them, or magnetize them to pull out unwanted materials like aluminum or metal wires. They can also use a chemical bath to wash the recycled items and remove any glues or inks that may be on them.

For example, when people put paper into their recycling bins, they send it to a local facility to be processed. Traditionally, that meant separating the paper from other materials like glass and metal, but now we have single-stream recycling, which means all of those items can go into the same bins. The truck that brings them to the recycler then takes it to a materials recovery facility, where a system of conveyor belts, screens, and machines sort the mixed items into their own groups so that the steel can be sold to metal recyclers and the paper can be sent to a mill to be made into new products.

To separate paper and other non-recyclable items, the first step is to grind the items with a shredder or other size reduction equipment. Then a series of vibratory feeders can separate the items by weight, which helps to get rid of heavier materials like metal and glass, and methodically sort them into their own groupings. Screens and magnetic separators can also help with this process.

After the items have been ground up into smaller pieces, they can be put through a granulator or crusher to further break them down. This will usually turn the items into a fine powder, or “granules,” which makes them easier to transport or store. From there, they can be sorted again and put into a baler, which will compress the granules into small, manageable bales that are then shipped to factories to be turned into new items.

For instance, if the recycled item is an aluminum can, it goes into an eddy current separator that has a 3,900-gauss magnet over it. The magnetic field attracts aluminum, which is then moved off of the conveyor and onto another machine to be separated from the rest of the waste materials. From there, they can be baled and shipped to foundries where they will be melted down and molded into new aluminum items. The same can be done for other types of recyclables, from metal wires to plastics and even paper. recycling machines