Waste can be segregated into its various components by two major methods.
- The first is the easiest, Do not mix it up in the first place - metal goes to one container, paper to another, food waste to a third and so on. The various containers are kept segregated until the waste gets to the recycling or disposal location. This requires a lot of user level commitment.
- The second is to toss out all waste together. Human or mechanical pickers pull out the obvious chunks (large metal items etc.) for recycling. The remainder is pulverized into small bits and mechanically separated by blowing, flotation or biochemical action into component streams (essentially a cream separator for waste) and each stream heads off for further treatment. This requires ahigh capital investment and hgh operating costs.
Aside: The advantage of the second method is that once set up the system can start to process existing contents of disposal sites