An effort led by RRT Design & Construction (RRT), Melville, N.Y., has resulted in an upgrade to the material recovery facility (MRF) of the Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County (SWA) in West Palm Beach, Fla. A new “paper cleaning system” is helping the authority provide “top-quality paper to its domestic and off-shore paper mill customers,” according to an RRT news release.

Critical fiber processing improvements have been completed at the large municipally owned MRFs, brought about by the shrinkage of the old newspapers (ONP) grade and a heightened focus on quality in the market, according to RRT. The Palm Beach County MRF processes more than 100,000 tons per year of residential recyclables.

Glass and other fines are known to create mechanical problems and lead to higher operating costs for MRFs and at paper mills, says RRT. The SWA has partnered for more than 20 years with various paper mills and it has been evident that even though its program is not single stream, the presence of glass was significant in causing cross-contamination during collection.

The SWA engaged RRT to design a high-capacity system to remove the glass and other fines from all its ONP and mixed paper grades. A 20-yard roll-off with more than 10 tons of glass is removed every eight hours of run time in the new system via the application of trommel screening technology, resulting in fiber that is 99.75 percent free of glass, according to RRT. “This is a remarkable accomplishment and indicative of more ‘paper cleaning’ efforts expected in the future for the industry,” says RRT in its news release.

“The authority is very pleased with the results of this project and its ability to ensure the ongoing quality of the fiber we sell,” says Jim Greer, SWA manager. “We are very pleased with RRT’s services and the performance of the system, which is removing more than 99 percent of the fines in our paper stream prior to baling.”

Nathiel Egosi, president of RRT, adds, “This system is another successful example of RRT’s unique abilities and expertise to find solutions for our clients and manage projects to successful conclusion. Paper cleaning has become a critical area of our focus to help improve and sustain industry performance.”

Celebrating its 25th year in business, RRT Design & Construction bills itself as an integrated design, engineering, construction and consulting firm whose work is dedicated to the business of recycling, waste processing and materials recovery from waste.