Case Study - Mackay

MACKAY CONVERTS MRF GLASS USING KRYSTELINE TECHNOLOGY

The township of Mackay in Queensland, Australia has a population of 150,000 and is located midway between Cairns and Brisbane. The relatively high cost of road haulage dictated their recycling policy. Its strategy was to decrease the cost of glass collections through inclusion of the glass within the comingled waste stream.

Re-using and refining any recovered materials from the MRF on site was a key strategic decision. Markets for recycled plastics, paper and card are established export markets, however alternative glass markets are in their infancy across Australia.

Challenge

The relatively isolated location of Mackay determined its strategy for glass recycling. The high weight and limited market potential meant an on-site processing solution for local use of the recovered glass was required. The client analysed the expected quality of glass recovered from the MRF and determined there to be a high concentration of non-glass contamination across the whole size range which would require specialised processing or to install technology directly within the MRF to reduce the glass size to ease its recovery.

Solution

The Krysteline GPK300 MRF glass recovery system was selected for its compact, high efficiency design. The system comprised a GPK300 Imploder for reducing the size of the glass and liberating it from contamination, a Taper slot screener for separation of contamination and a gyratory screener for segregation of recovered glass in to various sand grades.

Success

The installation of the Krysteline system has been a great success on processing feedstock which would normally be destined for landfill. The real magic happens in the Imploder, what you would expect is a mulch of glass, paper and plastic to exit the chamber. But what you see is the glass reduces to a sand and associated non glass items such as corks, plastic tops, labels, cloth, wood and many other items exit untouched.

The taper slot screener segregated the glass for final screening and cleaning at the gyratory screener. The gyratory screeners unique motion ensures any retained light fraction material is recovered through the air clean up system prior to the glass sands being bagged for onward distribution.

The MRF at Mackay is one of many MRF’s globally who have selected the innovative Krysteline technology. This technology is capable of processing from 2-30tph and can be integrated to the ground breaking Pyro Drier for full purification and sterilisation of the processed glass further enhancing its quality, value and market take-up.

The processed glass sands from the Krysteline system are suitable for a number of aggregate substitute markets with a size range from 0.2mm to 3mm.