Morristown, New Jersey-based Covanta, a waste, recycling and renewable energy firm, and Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard have jointly announced a plan to bring recycling to all single-family homes in the city of Indianapolis through the construction of a new material recycling facility.

The Covanta Advanced Recycling Center, to be built next to Covanta’s Indianapolis energy-from-waste (EfW) facility, will be designed to recover recyclables from mixed municipal solid waste (MSW). The company expects to invest  $45 million to build the facility. The EfW facility has been in operation in the city since 1988.

Covanta says the new facility will increase the amount of material recycled in Indianapolis by up to 500 percent at no cost to the city or its residents.

"Covanta's Advanced Recycling Center provides a commonsense solution that makes Indy a much more sustainable city," says Ballard. "This state-of-the-art facility will take Indy from a 10 percent recycling participation rate to 100 percent without any new government mandates, fees or tax increases. It is a win-win-win for the city, its residents and the environment."

The Covanta Advanced Recycling Center is an automated materials recovery facility modeled after recycling facilities in Europe.

Cassie Stockamp, president of the Indiana Recycling Coalition, however, expresses concern over the proposed recycling facility, saying the quality of the recyclables will suffer quite significantly.

“There is a better way,” she says.

According to Stockamp, other options, including a two-bin program, might result in higher quality recyclables.

While the city and Covanta continue to make progress on the project, Stockamp says recyclers have met with the city officials several times. “We are just asking them to pause for a bit,” she adds.

Covanta says it is confident that the recyclables collected at the facility will meet the expectations of its customers. A company spokesman says Covanta is investing a significant amount of money in the project and has done extensive research.

"The Covanta Advanced Recycling Center, combined with our energy-from-waste facility, will create a first-of-its-kind, next-generation system for sustainably managing waste in North America, further supporting Indianapolis' position as a national leader in sustainability," says Anthony Orlando, Covanta president and CEO. "We look forward to expanding and extending our partnership with the great city of Indianapolis. This investment will benefit the environment, the city and Covanta."

The company says it expects the project to create 70 jobs during construction of the facility and 60 permanent, full-time workers will be hired to operate the facility.

A spokesman for Covanta says the company will rely on its technology partner, Van Dyk Recycling Solutions, Stamford, Connecticut, for the equipment that will be used at the facility. Equipment will include magnets, eddy current separators and optical sorters.

Covanta says, when operational, the facility will:

• recover from 80 to 90 percent of recyclable materials, increasing recycling in the city by about 500 percent;
• significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
• complement the city’s existing EfW facility by sharing trucks and maintaining current traffic flow and avoiding additional vehicle emissions and burdens on road infrastructure; and
• help drive Indiana’s recycling rate toward the goal of 50 percent.

According to Covanta, the EfW facility provides nearly half the steam used by the downtown Indianapolis steam loop.

The recycling plan is subject to approval from the city's Board of Public Works. Covanta says it expects the facility to be up and running in 2016, following the receipt of necessary permits.

Phoenix-based Republic Services currently offers a fee-based recyclable curbside collection program for city residents.

More information about the Covanta Advanced Recycling Center can be found at www.covanta.com/advancedrecyclingcenter.
 

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Liberty Tire Recycling LLC’s, Port St. Lucie, Florida, facility for repeat and serious safety violations for exposing its workers to falls, fire/explosion and dangerous, unguarded equipment. The company was cited following a site-specific targeting inspection in January 2014. Proposed penalties for the firm total $45,000.

"This employer repeatedly failed to address previously cited fall and unguarded machinery violations, which were brought to management's attention two months ago," says Condell Eastmond, OSHA area director in Fort Lauderdale. "These hazards need to be eliminated from the workplace immediately to ensure workers are protected from serious injury or death."

Two repeat citations, carrying penalties of $30,000, were issued for exposing workers to fall hazards while working on platforms that lacked guardrails or had incomplete guardrails and for exposing workers to caught-in hazards while they worked near unguarded shaft and conveyor belts. In November 2013, the company, which is based in Pittsburgh, was cited for these same violations at its facility in Saltillo, Mississippi, OSHA says.

Three serious violations, with $15,000 in penalties, were noted for exposing workers to safety hazards while a powered industrial truck was operating with no functioning backup alarm or front lights. Additionally, employees were exposed to fire/explosion hazards from the accumulation of rubber dust and hazards from unguarded dangerous machinery on conveyors, OSHA says. 

StewardChoice Enterprises Inc., based in British Columbia, has announced that it will publish a draft stewardship plan for packaging and printed paper in June that will undergo public consultations throughout the summer. Once the plan is approved, the new recycling service will commence as early as next year initially in multifamily residential buildings in the province of British Columbia, the organization says.

“We see this as an opportunity to provide producers with more choice while offering cost-effective solutions,” says Neil Hastie, development director and spokesperson for StewardChoice Enterprises Inc. “We strongly believe that producers should have the ability to choose a preferred service when determining how to meet their regulatory obligations.”

Under the British Columbia Recycling Regulation, businesses that supply packaging and printed paper will be responsible for the cost of collecting, sorting and recycling these materials. StewardChoice notes that more than 20 percent of multifamily buildings in the province do not receive a producer-funded recycling service.

“We have two priorities at StewardChoice,” Hastie says. “One is to provide solutions for producers to achieve their environmental goals in compliance with the Recycling Regulation, and the other is to offer a plan that will increase collection of packaging and printed paper waste generated in British Columbia, beginning with areas like multifamily buildings that are currently not receiving any producer funded recycling services.”

Once the public consultations are complete, the plan will be submitted for approval to the British Columbia Ministry of Environment.

StewardChoice Enterprises Inc. is a subsidiary of Reclay StewardEdge, which provides packaging stewardship solutions to consumer product goods organizations. 

The equipment company Bollegraaf, headquartered in the Netherlands, recently completed the installation of a baler system at a Smurfit Kappa recycling facility in Blackburn, U.K. “We are very happy with the final installation, and it stands us ready to grow the Blackburn business for many years to come,” says Simon Weston, managing director of Smurfit Kappa Recycling.

“We know there is no single specification for the composition of waste," says Andre Matula, operations manager at Bollegraaf UK Ltd. "This is why we believe versatility is key. It inspires us to engineer, build and deliver tailor-made solutions that are easy to use, have a low cost of ownership, perform to your specifications and offer an excellent return on investment.”

Matula says the company recently has introduced several innovations and upgrades to its existing line of HBC balers.

"One of the most prominent features of these next generation balers is our innovative Variable Frequency Drive, resulting in significantly less energy consumption and less noise during operation," says Matula. One such feature is the baler's automatic use of standby mode after 180 seconds, she explains. "Bollegraaf has truly gone one stage further by offering our customers the new Eco baler option,” Matula continues.

Weston says, “As part of its competitive purchasing process, the energy efficiency of the new baling machine was one of the main selection criteria for Smurfit Kappa. Bollegraaf was the only company that offered comprehensive control of the main power hydraulic pack through a frequency inverter. We are already seeing substantial energy savings since the installation was switched on. When the baler is idled and waiting for new material the power consumed is reduced, while ensuring the machine is ready at any time.

“Not only did we compare each potential supplier for energy efficiency, but Bollegraaf also is using an environmentally friendly paint finish on their baler. It is really important for Smurfit Kappa to select suppliers that are thinking of sustainable solutions in the design of their machines,” Weston adds.

Mark Montgomery, H&S and compliance manager at Smurfit Kappa Recycling, says, “Safety was a key element throughout the purchasing process. We wanted to supply our employees with the safest baler available that would also meet the requirements of BSEN 16252:2012. I believe we have done that with the Bollegraaf HBC 140. Working together, we identified additional safety features such as extra access platforms, interlocked access points, conveyor reverse, auto lubrication systems and conveyor pit indicators. All the features identified were aimed at minimizing working at height and the interaction between people and the machine. This includes employees and contract maintenance staff. Full training and support have been provided to all operators by Bollegraaf UK. I believe the end result is one of the most efficient and safest balers on the market to date.”