The Asia Miner

APR-JUN 2017

The ASIA Miner - Reporting Important Issues to Mining Companies in the Asia Pacific Region

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Volume 14 • Issue 2 | 2017 | ASIA Miner | 27 Additional material - sorting out PO bottles. requirements ever since Anna and Peter Hündgen founded it as a freight-forwarding business in 1949. After initially helping to re- plenish companies' supplies in the wake of World War II, Hündgen began to operate gravel pits. When the gravel pits were converted into landfills, the family adapted itself to the changed market require- ments by getting involved in waste disposal. Around 140 trucks arrive at the company's facility every day. These trucks bring around 52,000 tons of lightweight packaging waste and 30,000 tons of commercial waste to the plant every year. From this waste, Hündgen produces 50,000 tons of substi- tute fuel annually. The company also provides other services, such as the pressing of films, paper and plastics and the collection of waste wood, garden waste, road sweepings and construction waste. The company also has a fleet of more than 20 vehicles for its container services. Increasing recycling rates In order to prepare materials for recycling, Hündgen separates them according to grain size. The fraction of material to be sorted with grain sizes of 60-200mm has the greatest sorting depth. The materials go through a number of stages, involving process- ing steps that use overbelt magnets, STEINERT NES eddy current separators and STEINERT NIR sorting equipment. Until recently, the process ended here and the material left over was used as substitute fuel for thermal recovery, in cement plants, for example. However, Hündgen decided to add another sorting step after testing UniSort Black. "UniSort Black not only enabled us to offer a more flexible range of services for our customers, but to report higher sorting rates to the operators of the dual recycling system," says Christian Hündgen. This increased the plastics yield from the residual fraction and allowed the materials to be reintegrated into the material flow and recycled. "It also makes it easier for us to achieve the contractually agreed-up- on sorting rates, to reduce incineration costs and, last but not least, to acquire additional materials by extracting polyolefins (PO) in the form of bottles made of PE and PP," adds Christian Hündgen. The STEINERT UniSort Black sorts the problematic remaining fraction of lightweight packaging, which consists of a mixture of black and dark plastics as well as other plastics that have a NIR-specifiable spectrum (PE, PP, PS). STEINERT's UniSort PR for standard plastic sorting.

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