Top-Level Modeling of Waste Processing and Resource Recovery Component of an ALSS

A chain of pivotably interconnected drag buckets for removing material from the sides of a loose pile and for delivering the material to a secondary discharge conveyor. The drag bucket assembly is particularly designed to be pulled about a circular path and includes a forward end adapted to be connected to a towing device and a free rearward end loosely received on a flat supporting surface. As the forward drag bucket is pulled along, the remaining buckets move in the circular path but also migrate radially inwardly toward the storage pile. The buckets scrape along the sides of the pile to remove material and move it along the support surface to openings where the material drops onto a discharge conveyor. The buckets are particularly designed so that flexure along the length of the chain will not cause openings to be formed between adjacent buckets.