If you are involved in an actual project, ask the equipment suppliers for copies of technical catalogues.

There are various technical magazines covering recycling, get hold of some and read them.

See if there are any conferences/seminars and twist your employers arms to let you attend them. ■

Try this website

www.solidwastemag.com

They often have articles describing new MRF's or new processes. Look through the back issues or do a search for what you are looking for.

You will start to see a pattern of equipment use emerge for different size facilities. These plants are pretty much cookie cutter copies nowadays. The only new thing of late is the introduction of optical sorting. ■

HI

Well am sure we all have been there.... i takes time

Arrange site visits to other MRF's your company or your suppliers have installed, see how its been done before and see if it can be improved / made simpler etc.

Main issues i try to cover are eliminate material spillage and create access for maintenance, ie for ease of maintenace.

These types of plants can become very messy places, and the culture of its waste so they dont mind spillages, but over time it will create problems with operational issues and cause delays in maintenace.

i have been involved in design and maintenace of small MRF's the areas that require attension, are the transitions from one peice of kit to another. (espically if the kit is supplied by different contractors / manufactures). ■

Proper transition design is the key to an effective system. Designing belts themselves should be the easy part. In my experience, try to make the belt wider than the previous transition, and make sure the presentation of material is correct and doesn't surge load. Vibratory equipment can help with that problem

Thank you!

Thomas Musschoot

General Kinematics Corp.

www.generalkinematics.com ■