According to current German legislation, the landfill of untreated municipal waste will be prohibited as of 2005. Consequently, the quantity of waste requiring treatment and thus the need for efficient sorting processes as a keystone in this waste treatment are set to grow. As a result of changes in the legal requirements and technical developments in recent years, the sorting systems for certain types of waste have now reached a high standard. This is documented, for example, by the considerable capacities available for the treatment of separately collected municipal waste. Whereas the separate collection of paper and glass is now established, the separate collection of packaging and biowaste has met with much lower acceptance. In this connection, a departure from the idea of material recycling at any price is now becoming evident, with critical reconsideration of this strategy not only in economic but also in ecological terms. Also with regard to electronic scrap and trade-in appliances, dismantling and recovery of the raw materials they contain will increase. Here there is a considerable need for the development of appropriate liberation and sorting methods
展开▼
