Case Studies > Derwen Optical

THE KEY FACTS

Year: 2016
Type: C&D/ C&I

Location: Neath
Country: GB
Project Type: Upgrade

Derwen Group, located in Neath Abbey South West Wales offer a range of recycling and waste management solutions. It is the only one of its kind in south wales, running since 1995, processing C&D and C&I materials.

The Challenge

Following the installation of phase 1 of Derwen’s recycling facility, the design of phase 2 began, with a view to recycle even more material using less manual labour. Phase 1 gave a clear understanding of what material was present in the waste through manual recovery of the various recyclates. This allowed Turmec to tailor the design of Phase 2 to efficiently recycle more material using automatic sorters.

THE SOLUTION

Phase 2 saw the integration of Optical sorters to recovery the plastic film, and mixed paper/card fractions while using manual sorters to preform a quality check on the recyclates. Also installed in phase 2, was 2 No. Eddy current separators. These recovered the non-ferrous fraction 10-60mm and RDF fractions.

OUTCOME

Thanks to the upgrade, the plant now automated & doubled the recovery rates of plastic film, paper/card and non-ferrous metals while reducing the level of manual picking staff required to run the plant.  This resulted in Derwen now having a 98% landfill diversion rate.