Like the three colours of the recycling bins, the sorting centre also has three streams of materials: paper/cardboard, glass packaging and plastic/metal packaging, with the capacity to process 50,000 t/year, 30,000 t/year and 19,500 t/year respectively. The collection lorries are weighed in the weighbridge area, at the entrance and exit of the facilities, so we know how much waste they have deposited at the Sorting Centre. The Sorting Centre is the unit that receives recyclable materials separated from recycling bins and door-to-door collections from the municipalities of Amadora, Lisbon, Loures, Odivelas and Vila Franca de Xira. It has 70 employees and works two shifts. The sorting centre's equipment allows it to use all the recyclable material.

As the bales are mixed (paper and cardboard) and the quantity of contaminants is low, there is no need for very exhaustive sorting, so only large contaminants are removed manually, with plastic bags being the most common.

As the quantity of contaminants is low, there is no need for sorting, so at the moment we are working as receivers/shippers.

This stream is the one that requires the greatest sorting effort, as it is the one with the greatest quantity of contaminants, and because we have to separate the materials placed in the yellow recycling bin by various types of material. The materials we sort in the plastic/metal packaging stream are as follows: PET and HDPE (types of plastic), PET oil (cooking oil bottles), film (plastic bags), mixed plastics (a category that includes plastics that don't fit into the types of plastic mentioned above), ECAL (drink and liquid food packets), ferrous packaging (iron and steel) and non-ferrous packaging (aluminium). Once the lorries have been weighed and depending on the material they have collected, they head to the unloading area corresponding to their respective stream and deposit the waste they are carrying there.

The pendulum-like mechanical movement of the plates causes the rolling stock to fall.

We have the capacity to process 7 tonnes/hour of packaging, using the following mechanical equipment:

1 Rotary screen;
1 Bag Opener;
1 Ballistic Separator;
7 Optical Separators;
4 plastic film suction systems.

Once separated, the materials are compacted and baled to be sent to the recycling industry.