Claims
- 1. A method of producing an alternate periodic cover for landfills from a recycling operation for metallic and non-metallic components comprising;
shredding a stream of materials comprising non-sorted, heterogeneous recyclable materials, separating the stream of materials into heavy materials and light materials, magnetically separating the heavy material stream, into ferrous and nonferrous material, discharging the non-ferrous materials to a screen for further separation, processing the light materials through a non-ferrous metal separator to separate the light materials into non-metallic materials and non-ferrous metal materials, and using the non-metallic materials as a periodic cover for landfills.
- 2. The method of claim 1 wherein said stream of materials comprises non-sorted, recyclable materials including a mixture of metal, plastic, fiber and inert material.
- 3. The method of claim 1 further comprising separating the light materials from the heavier materials utilizing a vacuum to draw light materials from the stream of materials.
- 4. The method of claim 3 wherein the light and heavy materials are separated by specific gravity.
- 5. The method of claim 3 further comprising separating the light materials from a return air stream by cyclone air separation.
- 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the pre-shredded stream of materials includes at least one of automobiles, appliances, office furniture, and other residential or industrial equipment.
- 7. A method of producing a fuel substance by separating materials in a recycling operation based on BTU component content comprising;
shredding a stream of materials comprising non-sorted, heterogeneous recycled materials, separating the stream of materials into heavy materials and light materials, magnetically separating the heavy material stream into ferrous and nonferrous material, discharging the non-ferrous materials to a screen for further separation, processing the light materials through a non-ferrous metal separator to separate the light materials into non-metallic materials and non-ferrous metal materials, the non-metallic materials having a BTU component content of at least four thousand BTU's per ton.
- 8. The method of claim 7 wherein said stream of materials comprises non-sorted, recycled materials including a mixture of metal, plastic, and fiber.
- 9. The method of claim 7 further comprising separating the light materials from the heavier materials utilizing a vacuum to draw light materials from the stream of materials.
- 10. The method of claim 9 wherein the light and heavy materials are separated by specific gravity.
- 11. The method of claim 9 further comprising separating the light materials from a return air stream by cyclone air separation.
- 12. The method of claim 7 further comprising separating the non-ferrous materials derived from said heavy material stream into non-ferrous metallic and non-metallic materials.
- 13. The method of claim 7 further comprising crushing and screening the non-metallic material to remove fines prior to utilizing the non-metallic material as a fuel.
- 14. The method of claim 7 further comprising using the non-metallic material as an alternative daily cover for landfills.
- 15. The method of claim 7 wherein said non-ferrous metals are recycled.
- 16. The method of claim 7 where the non-sorted, heterogeneous recycled materials include at least one of automobiles, appliances, office furniture, and industrial equipment.
- 17. A method of periodically covering landfills, comprising the steps of;
shredding a stream of materials comprising non-sorted, heterogeneous recycled metallic and non-metallic materials, separating the stream of materials into heavy materials and light materials, magnetically separating the heavy materials into heavy ferrous and heavy non-ferrous materials, discharging the heavy non-ferrous materials to a screen for further separation, separating the light materials into light magnetic materials and light nonmagnetic materials, separating the light non-magnetic materials into non-metallic materials and non-ferrous metal materials, and periodically applying the light non-metallic materials as cover for the landfill.
- 18. The method recited in claim 17, including the step of separating the heavy ferrous and non-ferrous materials into metallic and fine non-metallic materials, and periodically applying the fine non-metallic materials as cover for the landfill.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/875,225, filed Jul. 2, 2001, which is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/585,176 filed Jun. 1, 2000, which issued Jul. 23, 2002 as U.S. Pat. No. 6,422,493. Both application Ser. No. 09/875,225 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,422,493 are incorporated herein by reference.
Divisions (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09585176 |
Jun 2000 |
US |
Child |
09875225 |
Jul 2001 |
US |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09875225 |
Jul 2001 |
US |
Child |
10461598 |
Jun 2003 |
US |