Small to mid size municipal single stream recycling facilities face big challenges when it comes to automation—but the solution just got much more accessible!
Municipal MRFs of all sizes deal with the same materials – PET, HDPE, steel, AL cans, cardboard, mixed paper, and more. And their common goal? To recover these materials with high efficiency and purity. For smaller facilities, this has historically meant heavy reliance on manual sorting—with teams of sorters picking items by hand.
We call this ‘old-school’ sorting, and it’s where everyone started. It commonly included a platform full of sorters picking PET, HDPE (natural and coloured), PP or mixed plastics, AL and cans, with a magnet capturing the steel/tin cans.
While larger MRFs began automating with optical sorters years ago, their smaller (eg. 5-10tph) MRF counterparts commonly faced barriers of cost and space, prohibiting access to automation solutions. And it’s these smaller MRFs who could arguably benefit most from automation!
Making Automation Accessible
That’s where Alchemy Systems comes in. Headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, Alchemy turned the traditional optical sorting model on its head. Instead of dedicating one optical sorter to a single commodity, Alchemy’s innovative multi-lane SureSort system optically sorts multiple materials in each pass.
Here’s how the Alchemy multi-lane Alchemy optical sort system works:
- Material is singulated into narrow lanes.
- Each lane uses an Alchemy AI vision system to identify all items in the stream.
- Compressed air nozzles (per lane) eject targeted commodities when passing by their respective stations, automatically sorting PET, HDPE N&C, PP, etc. in the process.
The Alchemy SureSort optical sorting system also ejects trash and fiber, so that the balance of remaining unsorted containers can return to the Alchemy line for another pass.
The result? A substantially reduced headcount and consistently high purity rates of 95% & higher. With the Alchemy optical sort system, you no longer have to choose which commodity to target—each lane sorts all container types.
Big Impact for Small Facilities
Alchemy‘s multi-lane optical sorters are a game-changer for small to mid-sized municipal MRFs, making automation scalable (as additional lanes can be added as volumes grow), cost-effective, and easy to use.
By replacing manual sorters with AI-powered precision, these compact self-contained systems slash labor, and optimize recovery and purity.
Sparta is proud to be the exclusive distributor of Alchemy optical sorters in North America. We integrate the Alchemy system into our Sparta single stream recycling solutions, providing custom-designed expandable systems and upgrades for municipalities of all sizes.
Transform Your Recycling Today
The Alchemy SureSort multi lane optical sort system is the latest innovative product breakthrough in Sparta’s single stream systems. Other game-changing product innovations include the accelerated ballistic separator (Sparta Olympus), and the spiral self-cleaning Sparta OCC screen.
8 manual sorters on container line.
5 sorters removed from container line.
Sort better and smarter with the Alchemy SureSort system, whose vision system gives you a real-time view of your MRF’s material composition and product recovery (item by item, hour by hour). Let Sparta and Alchemy bring the future of recycling to your MRF, with scalable automation, right-sized for your needs, volumes, and budget.
See in operation
