Overview
Over the last few year the incineration of waste has seen a fast growth. The incineration process converts the waste materials into slags, ash and heat. The total amount of slags and ash produced by municipal solid waste incineration ranges from 4 to 10% of the original volume (some 15% by weight) of the incineration input material. The slags also called bottom ash, consists of mostly inorganic materials and often take the form of solid lumbs and these can be rich in metals.
GF United Power has been one of the first recycling companies to perform research on how to recover the metallic content of these slags and today, the processing of incineration slags in done on a day-to-day basis. The techniques used are similar to the techniques used for shredder residues.