Process for dry recovery of materials from solid refuse

A method for the treatment of solid municipal garbage and trash for making useful products therefrom, including the recovery and restoration of distinct products which are 100 percent recycled from the garbage and trash, said method comprising the steps of:

• (A) preparing a feedstock of solid municipal garbage and trash, said feedstock further essentially comprising dried paper, plastic film, glass, ceramics, grit, non-ferrous metals, hard plastics, and cellulosic garbage and plant materials, whereby said solid municipal garbage and trash is comprised of pieces in the range of approximately one-half to six inches in size, wherein further the moisture content is reduced to a range from 20% to 50% of the oven-dried basis weight of the solids comprising said feedstock, and
• (B) directly inputting said feedstock into an attrition classification machine, wherein said feedstock is separated into two classified streams, as the result of the following steps:
• (i) downwardly impelling said feedstock into an attrition classification zone, said zone being defined by the region between a rotor means having a plurality of cutting elements projecting therefrom and a screen means positioned around said rotor means and having a plurality of openings therein, wherein said attrition classification zone applies a severe cutting, abrading, and thrashing action to said feedstock while propelling and intensely scrubbing said feedstock along the inner surface of said screen means, whereby said attrition step loosens and rejects through said screen openings the loose, soft, decayed and disintegratable matter contained in said feedstock, while also performing the step of ballistically driving through said openings the high density particles of glass, ceramics, grit, non-ferrous metal and hard plastics present in said feedstock as a first classified stream while;
• propelling fibrous constituents through said attrition classification zone, and along the inner surface of said screen, so as to apply a simultaneous severe chopping, cutting, scrubbing, scraping, and thrashing action upon fibrous constituents of said feedstock, and impelling said fibrous constitutents as machine cleaned confetti thrashed paper, together with any chopped plastic film and light weight particles not passing through the openings of said screen, downwardly as a second classified stream;
• and
• (C) directly conveying said first classified stream to an air classification means, while subjecting said first classified stream to an air drying step previous to a gravity separation step which further includes a forced air flow, wherein said first classified stream is thereby separated into lighter fractions of fiberized fuel, carried off by said forced air flow, and heavier fractions of aggregate materials and;
• (D) directly conveying said second classified stream to a separate air classification means, while subjecting said second classified stream to an air drying step previous to a ballistic separation step, which further includes a forced air flow, wherein light weight airborne confetti paper and airborne plastic film particles are separated, by said forced air flow, from heavier aggregate constituents present in the second classified stream.