Under the cut about how the largest project in Russia for the collection and disposal of equipment is organized, plus a small excursion to a processing plant where electronics and household appliances are disposed of.
The most interesting thing in the primary processing process is the work of separators, which separate elements of the desired type from the ground crumbs of everything and everything. And here, too, there is a place for AI.
For about 10 years, we have been holding campaigns for the collection and disposal of equipment, within which we gave discounts on new purchases. And since the summer of last year, they began to do this on an ongoing basis. And possible without additional conditions. It is enough to bring it to the service area of ββone of our stores participating in the project and fill out a refusal form. Now this can be done in 383 M.Video and Eldorado stores in nine cities and regions (Moscow, Moscow Region, St. Petersburg, Kolpino, Kazan, Volgograd, Yaroslavl, Samara and Ulyanovsk). The removal of old large equipment can still be ordered upon delivery of a new one, but in the future we will make a separate service. Through the Association "SKO Electronics-Utilization" we work with a network of processing plants in different regions of Russia. For the convenience of accounting and control, we have created a simple IT system in which we register all devices handed over by clients, after which we can track their further fate.
Over the past nine months, we have transferred 292 tons of equipment for recycling. In pieces, this is 24 units. They were brought to us by a little over 900 thousand of our customers. Basically, buyers handed over mobile phones, TVs, home phones, headphones, irons and kettles. And now we want to tell you what happens next with this technique. To do this, we went to our partners at the Ecotechprom plant, located in the Moscow region, five kilometers from the Moscow Ring Road.
Why is recycling necessary?
Household appliances and electronics account for about 7% of the total amount of waste (hereinafter, the figures announced by Vladimir Preobrazhensky, Executive Director of Ecotechprom). But it is electronic waste that causes 70% of the harm to the environment. They contain all kinds of heavy metals, mercury, freons, oils. These elements eventually get into groundwater and poison drinking sources, as well as the soil.
Where everything is recycled
As an example, let's talk about one of the partners - the Ecotechprom plant near Moscow, which is part of the Ecopolis Corporation. It owns several recycling plants that operate on the principle of a closed cycle with zero emissions to the environment. Those. in terms of environmental friendliness - a complete order.
At this enterprise, equipment is disassembled into components, crushed and sorted. The final processing products, such as plastic granules or non-ferrous metals, are produced at other enterprises of the corporation.
How is recycling
In general terms, everything is simple: you need to accept the equipment, remove the batteries, kinescopes, pump out freon from refrigerators, then send it to the shredder. At the output, get a crumb, sort it into metals and plastics and transfer it for further processing to other plants.
In fact, everything is a little more complicated. And the greatest number of technologies is involved just in sorting. But let's start in order, with a panorama.
Panorama of the main workshop. Photo: Ecotechprom
The area in the foreground is designed to store electronics that will be recycled. On the left is the platform where manual disassembly is taking place. To the right in the depth are shredders and separators.
And now to the details.
Each newly arrived batch is sorted: large household appliances in one direction, everything with picture tubes goes to the special stage, and electronics are simply dumped into huge piles.
From these piles, the manipulator takes it to the conveyor, where manual disassembly takes place.
Photo: Ecotechprom
They unwind the technique where necessary - they help with a hammer, they separate large parts of plastic, glass and iron and wires from each other. Then all this will go to different shredders and separators.
Large-sized equipment is waiting for an industrial shredder. She goes there all the way.
The only thing: before that, freon is pumped out of the cooling systems of refrigerators using a special apparatus, which is disposed of separately at other enterprises. It is harmful in that it is capable of destroying the ozone layer of the Earth.
The washing machine drives into the shredder
After the shredder, the separation section begins.
How plastics and metals are separated
There are six separators at Ecotechprom. Several eddy current tuned for different types of metals, air, neodymium and optical.
Ferrous metals are chosen from a common heap with a neodymium magnet.
Then the screening enters the eddy current separators. There, plastics are separated from metals, and different groups of metals are separated from each other.
Mixed non-ferrous metals fall into this container
And in these bags - plastics and other crumbs
The principle of operation of the eddy current separator is based on the generated Foucault currents. Getting into it, the conductive (where there are free electrons) material is pushed out, and the organic material (plastic, rubber) simply falls down.
Optical separator
Non-ferrous metals are already sorted on the optical separator. Here it is the most high-tech device. They have been conjuring with its settings for several months now, adding the necessary programs: there were three of them in the basic package, and now seven are needed. Potentially, this is the place where the application of AI would be of great benefit. And he'll be here soon.
Of course, not only metals can be sorted on this installation. Loaded there is such a baby:
There are two key elements in the separator: the chamber and the inductive sensor. The first captures the size and color, and the sensor reacts to the metal. The unsorted fraction is carefully fed onto the conveyor belt, which, passing through the sensors, ends with a comb with air nozzles and two containers. If the sensors detect the desired element, a nozzle is activated on the dump from the tape where it is located, knocking it out of the general heap into a separate container. Each time the separator separates one thing, for example copper, then brass, etc.
The story with plastic sorting is a little different. Since more than 40 types of plastics can be found, division by density is used. They make a saline solution in which one floats, the other settles. Separation is controlled by the density of the solution. All this takes place at another enterprise of the corporation, where plastic chips are transported from Ecotechprom in soft containers (big bags).
Disposal of hazardous substances
We have already talked about pumping out freon from old refrigerators above. It is collected in special cylinders and transported to a special facility for neutralization.
Another environmentally hazardous part is kinescopes. They contain a huge amount of lead oxide, barium. Also dangerous is the phosphor.
For the disposal of kinescopes, several special cameras have been installed at the enterprise. There, kinescopes are carefully cut and the phosphor is removed with a built-in vacuum cleaner, after which all this is sent to a special enterprise that utilizes mercury-containing materials.
A separate fate awaits batteries and batteries. They are assembled at the stage of dismantling the equipment and transported to a special enterprise.
About sales
Recycled materials are taken by companies that then write in the passport of each of their products that so much and so much is made from recycled materials. Recycled plastic is purchased by manufacturers of containers, sewer pipes, street benches, window sills and bitumen. Heavy plastic from office equipment is quite suitable for this.
The main buyers of metals are Severstal and Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. According to the director, the purity of the metal supplied by him is 94%, which almost corresponds to European standards, where it is fixed at 95%.
Here, in general, the whole story. This year, we plan to launch a recycling scheme in 12 more cities, as well as make it, among other things, a separate and independent service (this is if you need to save the planet from obsolete large-sized equipment with its removal from the installation site). At the same time, small and medium-sized equipment can still be brought to the service areas of our stores and be sure that its disposal will be carried out in accordance with all the rules.
These two motorcycles are the same exotic that our customers also handed over
Source: habr.com