Leyland
Waste treatment
Leyland
Residual waste that enters our Leyland facility is currently loaded into a shredder, mechanically treated to recover metals and recover a combustible product known as refuse derived fuel (RDF). RDF is then sent to other waste processors for further treatment before being used in the energy from waste sector.
receive, treat and transport
Materials Recovery Facility (MRF)
- Kerbside-collected recycling material is processed at our Leyland facility through our MRF. The MRF mechanically separates plastics, cans, and glass collected from households.
- The process begins when a loading shovel picks up the material and drops it into a hopper before a conveyor belt takes it into a sorting cabin.
- Our employees working in the sorting cabin are the first line of defence against things that could damage our machinery. They pick out items that should not be there such as plastic sheeting, electronic equipment, and large pieces of metal (incompatibles).
- The material then passes under an over-band magnet, which picks out magnetic (ferrous) material.
- Next, the materials are bounced over a series of metal screens and the glass is smashed into lots of small pieces that fall between the gaps, removing the broken glass.
- Different types of plastics are separated from each other using a number of optical sorters. If the plastic is dirty or is hidden by a plastic bag, it cannot be recognised by the light, and is therefore not sorted correctly. PET clear and HDPE plastic bottles make up a large amount of all the plastic collected.
- After ferrous material, glass, and plastics have been removed, all that is left to sort are the aluminium cans.
- These are sorted using an eddy current separator, as aluminium is not magnetic (non-ferrous). Fast spinning magnets give the aluminium a temporary magnetic field which is repelled by another magnet. This action forces the aluminium cans off the conveyor belt and separates them from any remaining non-metal waste.
- Now that all the recyclables have been separated, they are dropped into individual hoppers. Once there is enough of each material in a hopper, the material is ready to be baled and can be stored to await transport to the offtake market to be recycled.
Please visit our Offtakes page to see the various types of material recovered through the MRF.
everything is treated
Processing residual waste
Residual waste that enters our Leyland facility is currently loaded into a shredder, mechanically treated to recover metals and recover a combustible product known as refuse derived fuel (RDF). RDF is then sent to other waste processors for further treatment before being used in the cement kilns or energy from waste.
mechanical biological treatment
Planned future processing activity at Leyland
We plan to introduce the Mechanical Biological Treatment process currently undertaken at our Thornton facility in 2025. For more details on that process, please see our Thornton page.
