On March 26, a visit was made to the Ferrovial sorting plant by several members of the Washing Train, Compliance and Direction Departments of Gate Gourmet. The objective was that the staff of the different departments involved in waste management could see the operation of the plant in situ and thus understand the treatment received by the waste generated in Gate Gourmet, mainly coming from catering served on airplanes.

During the visit, Daniel de la Cerra, Manager of Treatment Plants in Ferrovial, accompanied the attendees explaining step by step the process of separation that waste follows.

In summary, the waste classification process is as follows:

  • Introduction of waste into a hopper opens bags

  • Ballistic separation that is responsible for differentiating planar type waste from the upper part, rolling type in the lower part and finer material that sneaks through the holes (sunk of the ballistic)

  • Magnetic separation to recover steel

  • Optical separation to differentiate the waste according to the composition of the waste (plastic PET, HDPE, PP; cardboard; beverage carton …)

  • Negative manual separation to remove improper material

  • Foucault separation of aluminum

Once this process is finished, the rejection can be recirculated to guarantee that all the recoverable elements present are separated to the maximum. Finally, each type of waste classified by its composition is stored, then it is packed and transported to the appropriate recycler. The waste that has not been separated arrives at a reject compactor and is taken to landfill.

The fact of knowing how the waste is processed in the Ferrovial plant is a motivation to improve the segregation of waste in the Gate Gourmet facilities and thus facilitate the classification in the plant and increase the percentage of waste recycling.


Gate Gourmet staff attending the visit, from left to right (Department to which they belong within GG): Joaquín Mateo (Compliance), Juan Antonio Nieto (Washing Train), Juan Antonio García (Management), Raquel Llorente (Compliance) , Alberto García (Compliance), Juan Fernando Martín (Compliance), Patricia Zamora (Compliance), José Puerta (Washing Train).