Greater Manchester Waste

did you know?


		Every year, 8 billion plastic bags are given away by supermarkets and shops. This is equivalent to over 130 bags for every person in the UK. These will take up to 450 years to degrade.

		A forest as big as Wales is needed every year to supply all the paper for the UK.

		The average person throws away 74kgs of organic waste a year, equivalent to 1077 banana skins.

		3.2 billion aluminium cans are still going into landfill (approximately 50,000 tonnes), equivalent to burying the Titanic every year.

GMW operates four Materials Recovery Facilities (MRF) which are located at strategic points throughout the region. Each of these plants receive between 800 and 1,000 tonnes of MSW per day. On reception the bulky items are separated from the municipal solid wsste, leaving material suitable for pulverisation. This material is then gradually fed into the pulverisation drums by conveyor. Each of the plants have two of these rotating drums which are the nucleus of the process and are lined with tumbling bars and projecting steel spurs which break open the bags and pulverise the waste. Attrition quickly disintegrates the soft bulky waste with the harder material assisting in the wearing down process. As it exits the drums, the waste passes through two rotating screens, which separate it into two independent streams according to size; one containing recoverable items, the other, material that is ideally suited for composting.

The larger size fraction (+45mm) passes under a drum magnet which removes steel items. Over 6,000 tonnes of steel are recovered every year by this method. The oversize stream then passes through more screening and seperation equipment, for refinement, before undergoing Eddy Current Separation to recover an aluminium rich feed stock. This feed stock then undergoes a final manual sort to isolate aluminium used beverage cans (UBCs) which have a good commercial value. With all four MRFs fitted with this equipment, the Company can recover up to 50 million aluminium UBCs each year for recycling. The remaining lower grade aluminium materials, eg foil cartons, aerosols etc., are baled and passed on to a reprocessor for recycling.

The smaller fraction (-45mm), after the initial screening, is passed over a density separator which has a screen that vibrates vigorously. The motion of the screen causes heavy oversize materials (e.g. stones, glass, batteries, plastics etc.) to migrate downward and lighter oversize materials (e.g. paper, plastic film etc.) to migrate upwards. The desired materials of the correct size pass through the screen to form a Organic Rich Material.

The Organic Rich Material is dark brown in colour, similar to topsoil and consists primarily of organic materials, such as vegetable matter, paper, card etc. and also includes mineral substances, such as stones and grit.

This material is ideally suited for composting and biostabilisation in producing a material to improve growth conditions for plants and trees.

The fraction of the waste stream, which cannot be recovered using these techniques, is currently compacted into ISO containers before being transported for final disposal. However, research is continuing to establish a use for this material as a resource.

The company's four MRFs already have rail heads linked to the national rail network where the treated household waste can be transported to various sites. GMW utilises a unique container which is equally suited to road and rail use giving the company's operations an added degree of flexibility. The use of rail transport provides an environmental benefit, minimising effects on residents caused by traffic congestion and lessens the impact of moving waste by road.

The System