Municipal Solid Waste

About The Municipal Solid Waste Industry

What we typically refer to as trash or garbage—the items we commonly use and throw away, from food scraps and packaging to furniture and appliances to computers—is referred to in the industry as municipal solid waste (MSW). Every year Americans generate about 250 million tons of MSW, and 134 million tons find their way to landfills or incinerators. All of that waste is recyclable, and recycling it has a huge impact on the environment and thus on our daily lives.

In 2011 Americans recycled and composted 87 million tons of MSW, which had an effect on the environment comparable to removing the annual emissions from over 34 million cars. This recycling also saved more than 1.1 quadrillion Btu’s of energy—the same amount of energy consumed by over 10 million U.S. homes in a year.

Vulcan® Sorting Systems personnel have designed products that have been distributed all over the world to sort and reclaim valuable recyclables from municipal solid waste (MSW). Nigerians have used these systems to sort garbage as well as ship waste at ports. Military disposal in Afghanistan has passed over our conveyors. Tsunami waste in Japan and MSW in Malta, Canada and the US have all been sorted on our systems. 

The system design is based upon a modular approach but can be custom-designed around the user's facilities, personnel and waste, among other concerns.

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