The rapid growth of municipal solid waste (MSW) brings huge social and environmental pressures to our country, the treatment method of making garbage reduction, hazard-free and reclamation is accord with environmental protection and continuable development, and the key question of achieving this goal is to sort the garbage reasonably. On the basis of analyzing the characteristics of garbage, a new kind of roller-type urban living garbage sorting equipment was developed based on a special movement principle of cam mechanism proposed in this paper. This equipment can realize its function through a fixed cam axis, more than eighty sets of garbage separating needle assemblies reasonably distributed on the roller, in which needles (followers) can move in and out of the roller, and an active roller which rotates around the cam axis together with the needle assembles. As the core components of the equipment, cam mechanism and separating needle assembly was designed in detail, including the cam contour curve and force analysis, and the distribution of stress and strain of separating needles was obtained by using ANSYS software because it is the most easily damaged link in this equipment. The roller-type garbage sorting equipment can be used in the middle stage of garbage separation process to sort easily hooking garbage such as plastic, with higher separation speed and efficiency. It makes a good preparation for subsequent garbage separation work to improve the efficiency of comprehensive utilization of resources.