“A Fine Dilemma: Small Items in Recycling” Project Kick-Off – 18 June

Small items, even if they have the potential to be recycled, are currently classified as red under the RAM methodology.

Items such as plastic caps, closures, toothbrushes, beauty and make-up products and coffee pods are often lost early in the material recovery facility (MRF) sorting process. These items frequently fall through the size sort and glass breaker screens (<50 mm) alongside the crushed glass, forming part of the fines fraction. Once combined with the glass fragments, these fines/small items are difficult to recover and often end up as waste or low-grade aggregates.

Little research has been conducted to quantify and categorise what materials, brands or products are present in the fines fractions, or to evaluate how efficient current glass clean-up systems are. Understanding the scale and composition of these losses is essential for improving design for recycling principles, refining collection and sorting systems and optimising MRF processes.

The Fine Dilemma project will provide evidence and practical solutions by characterising the materials in the fines fraction, evaluating the efficiency of glass clean-up systems, and developing targeted mitigation strategies through design, infrastructure, and policy interventions.

For more info about the project and how to join the consortium, contact irina@recoup.org