title: Urban mining: quality and quantity of recyclable and recoverable material mechanically and physically extractable from residual waste.
abstract: The mechanically sorted dry fraction (MSDF) and Fines (<20mm) arising from the mechanical biological treatment of residual municipal solid waste (RMSW) contains respectively about 11% w/w each of recyclable and recoverable materials. Processing a large sample of MSDF in an existing full-scale mechanical sorting facility equipped with near infrared and 2-3 dimensional selectors led to the extraction of about 6% w/w of recyclables with respect to the RMSW weight. Maximum selection efficiency was achieved for metals, about 98% w/w, whereas it was lower for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), about 2% w/w. After a simulated lab scale soil washing treatment it was possible to extract about 2% w/w of inert exploitable substances recoverable as construction materials, with respect to the amount of RMSW. The passing curve showed that inert materials were mainly sand with a particle size ranging from 0.063 to 2mm. Leaching tests showed quite low heavy metal concentrations with the exception of the particles retained by the 0.5mm sieve. A minimum pollutant concentration was in the leachate from the 10 and 20mm particle size fractions.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Via G. Duranti 67, 06125 Perugia, Italy. Electronic address: francesco.dimaria@unipg.it.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Di Maria
authors.forename: Caterina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Micale
authors.forename: Alessio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sordi
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cirulli
authors.forename: Moreno
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marionni
mesh_terms: D002947:Cities; D008906:Mining; D059027:Recycling / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014866:Waste Products / Q000032:analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D014866:Waste Products
keywords: 2-3 dimensional selector; 2-3D; C&D; COD; EDTA; Fines; MBT; MC; MSDF; MSOF; Mechanically sorted dry fraction; NIR; Near infrared; PC; PE; PET; PP; PS; RMSW; Recoverable; Recyclable; SRF; SW; Soil washing; TS; Total Solids; UM; Urban Mining; VS; WEEE; WFD; Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment; Waste Framework Directive; chemical oxygen demand; construction and demolition; ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid; mechanical biological treatment; mechanically sorted dry fraction; mechanically sorted organic fraction; moisture content; near infrared; polycarbonates; polyethylene; polyethylene terephthalate; polypropylene; polystyrene; residual municipal solid waste; soil washing; solid recovered fuel; volatile solids