EDGE Innovate go Down Under

Equipment manufacturer supplies new state-of-the-art mobile recycling plant in Melbourne

AUSTRALIAN waste-management operators Cleanaway have opened a new mobile recycling plant at their Brooklyn operations in Melbourne, Victoria. 

Installed by FOCUS Enviro, the EDGE Innovate-designed waste-processing plant – which includes a TRT622 trommel screen, a Slayer XL shredder and a four-bay picking station – draws on two similar installations at Cleanaway’s New Chum landfill site in Ipswich, and their Willawong recycling and transfer station in Brisbane.

Explaining the importance of transforming the company’s Brooklyn resource recovery centre into a waste-recycling powerhouse facility, Karl David, regional manager at Cleanaway, said: ‘We went through and identified that there was real potential to recover more from our transfer stations and wanted to invest in increasing our recovery of materials that would otherwise go into landfill. 

‘We’ve been through a journey to review that and identified sites such as Brooklyn, where we could start recycling significantly to avoid landfill and improve our business going forward.’

In addition to the standard shredding of materials, the recycling plant features a heavy-duty magnet that removes metals for later recovery. All feed material moves through a trommel that separate soils and fines for classification and disposal. 

The remaining material – anything larger than 20mm – is sent to the picking station via a TS-Series EDGE stacker conveyer system. At the picking station, light materials such as plastics and cardboard are separated, with heavier materials (eg metal, concrete, brick, timber etc.) dropped into under-side bins.

For added flexibility, the EDGE Innovate mobile plant is tracked (except the picking station), giving Cleanaway the ability to adapt and adjust processes to meet changing needs and waste profiles. 

‘We’re identifying a lot more recycling than we had anticipated and are recovering tiny pieces of metal that we never would have found in the past,’ explained Mr David. ‘It opens our eyes to new opportunities – that’s what is exciting. I come up here and I’m excited, and more importantly, our operators are really excited to be a part of it.’

Thanks to the mobile recycling solutions provided by EDGE Innovate and FOCUS Enviro, Cleanaway’s Brooklyn resource recovery centre is now a Green Star site, highlighting the company’s goal of contributing to market transformation and a sustainable economy.