Resource Management Group (RMG), a San Diego-based materials management and recycling services provider, recently opened a new material recovery facility (MRF). Designed and installed by CP Group, the recycling system features MSS CIRRUS optical sorting technology and is designed for both commercial and multi-family single stream processing.

“At RMG, we are very proud to be the first MRF built in the City of San Diego in over 16 years. We look forward to playing a larger role as a solution provider in support of the City’s recycling ordinance and the state of California’s mandated diversion goals,” RMG President and CEO Armen Derderian said in a statement. “Our focus now is to grow our commercial and multi-family single-stream volumes while still achieving high recovery rates. CP's System Engineers had to deal with a number of challenges, like the diversity of the incoming material streams and significant space limitations. But they delivered. We are pleased with our system and its capabilities.”

The majority of the system input is a blend of commercial and multi-family single stream materials, including OCC, OMP and plastic film. After loading onto the incline conveyor, the material goes through a manual pre-sort station where any over-size items are removed. The three-deck CP OCC screen recovers cardboard, and a CP glass breaker fines screen removes <2" fines. The remaining material enters the MSS CIRRUS optical sorter which is set up in a dual-eject configuration and positively ejects containers and fiber materials. This system is able to achieve a higher than 90 percent diversion with minimal manual sorting.

“This is a unique system in the way we use optical sorting technology to handle and sort fiber,” CP Group President and CEO Terry Schneider said in a statement. “Our team at CP Group has enjoyed working so closely with RMG to help them reach their diversion goals. They are a very progressive company.”

The MSS CIRRUS sensing technology features heavily in the success of the system. It allows the operator to select the different types of materials that should be targeted for ejection.

In standard operation mode for this facility, the CIRRUS positively identifies and extracts all containers (PET, HDPE, mixed plastics bottles, UBC and tin cans) into the first eject chute, and all mixed paper into the second eject chute, while allowing the residue to fall into the negative pass-through. Because a high percentage of the commercial and multi-family input stream consists of single sheets of paper as well as flexible packaging (plastic film), MSS's proprietary air-assist system is installed to ensure proper material handling on the high-speed conveyor belt and through the detection and ejection zone.