Systems and methods for sorting recyclables at a material recovery facility

A system for providing a quantity of cullet having at least two colors of glass from an input stream of recyclable material and non-recyclable material having at least two colors of glass, comprising:

• a first sortation station for receiving the input stream, and removing from the input stream at least a portion of the non-recyclable material;
• a first screening apparatus for substantially removing corrugated fiber products from the input stream;
• a second screening apparatus for substantially removing newspaper from the input stream;
• an air classifier for receiving glass from the input stream, and extracting at least one of plastic, aluminum and paper elements from the input stream;
• a third screening apparatus that receives non-glass items and residual glass from said second screening apparatus, and substantially removes paper items from the non-glass items;
• a second sortation station that receives an output from said third screening apparatus, and directs glass items to a crushing apparatus, and said plastic items to a repository;
• a crushing apparatus that receives the glass from said air classifier and second sortation station, and breaks substantially all of the glass into pieces having a largest dimension equal to or less than a predetermined length;
• and
• a fourth screening apparatus for receiving the crushed glass and removing additional non-glass contaminants, thereby providing as output the cullet comprising at least two colors.