Partnership creating wealth from waste

A partnership between Aqseptence Group and Netherlands firm Colubris Cleantech will deliver bespoke, waste recycling solutions to the Australian and New Zealand market via the Redox Waste Recycling brand.

Known for Johnson Screens, Aqseptence partnered with Colubris Cleantech to create real-value commodities from waste and deliver innovative yet robust sorting lines with the flexibility to tackle inconsistent waste streams efficiently and cost-effectively.

Bespoke solutions for waste streams

Colubris Cleantech develops, produces and installs sorting lines for a variety of waste flows. Redox (a brand of Colubris Cleantech) sorting lines can distil waste flows from diverse sectors to give recyclates a second life as plastics, metal, wood, paper, sand or stone. In certain cases, Redox installations can recover over 95% of materials from waste streams.

Municipal solid waste

Mainly generated by households, this waste stream consists of a diverse range of materials such as product packaging, grass clippings, furniture, clothing, bottles, food scraps, newspaper, small appliances, paint and batteries.

About 75% of this waste stream can be separated using the Redox sorting system. Re-usable materials, for example paper, cardboard, plastics and metals, can be recovered to achieve local authority recycling targets. Organic wastes can be further treated and used in bioenergy systems.

Demolition waste predominantly consists of crushed heavy fractions, such as asphalt, concrete, tiles and aggregates. Construction waste can be much lighter and mostly consists of packaging and general rubble from building and renovating sites. The compositions of these waste streams differ greatly but up to 95% of the total mass can be recovered for re-use.

To effectively process waste streams, Redox has developed two kinds of separating and cleaning equipment: windshifters (cleaning with air) and drum washers (cleaning with water).

Industrial and commercial waste

This waste stream varies widely but can include dry waste, such as general container (skip) waste, office and canteen waste, product packaging waste and production waste. A coarse shredder can be used at the input to achieve higher throughputs.

Flexibility is key for mixed streams, with almost 80% of materials being recycled. Typical recyclates are paper, cardboard, plastic, stone, metal and wood.

Compost, green and organic waste

Several systems can treat organic waste and compost. For dry, oversize composting operations, size separation takes place first, then windshifters are used to separate the inert fractions like stones and glass. Infrared optical separators remove plastics and other contaminations.

The windshifter is an energy-efficient and controllable method for density separation. For heavily contaminated organic fractions it may be desirable to use a wet ‘up-flow’ washing system. When dealing with water and sludge systems, organic and inorganic separation can be used to split the inert fraction such as stones and glass from the organic material. Sludges can then be used to produce biogas or in thermal recovery systems.

Image courtesy of Aqseptence Group.