Refining and Conditioning

Most of the fractions need to be refined or conditioned in order to be sold as secondary raw materials or to be disposed of in a final disposal site, respectively. Refining includes mechanical, thermal and chemical processes. It is typically performed for fractions such as batteries, CRT's, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, recyclable plastics and printed boards. Many refining processes take place outside Switzerland, entailing greater transport distances. Conditioning includes Municipal Solid Waste Incineration (MSWI) of fractions such as plastics waste in one of the 36 Swiss MSWI plants and Hazardous Waste Incineration (HWI) of fractions such as condensers in one of the 7 Swiss HWI plants.