With weak market conditions and low prices, 2019 has proven to be a rough year for recyclers looking to move recovered fiber. Old corrugated containers (OCC) prices slid steadily from January to June, hitting a near 25-year low of $25 per ton that month. U.S. mixed paper prices have been hovering around zero dollars per ton since April 2018, and export demand for that grade hasn’t been great since China backed out of the market.

However, signs of improvement are on the horizon. Domestic demand for recovered fiber could rebound in a couple of years as many companies have announced domestic mill projects in 2017, 2018 and 2019. One of those projects announced in 2017 is Conyers, Georgia-based Pratt Industries’ construction of a new containerboard mill in Wapakoneta, Ohio. The mill is slated to open this month, and the company says it will consume about 400,000 tons of recovered fiber annually once it’s fully operational.

The company also operates a recycling facility just 2 miles away from this new mill. That facility will provide some recovered fiber to the mill; however, a majority of the mill’s furnish will come from other sources in the Midwest.

What sets Pratt’s containerboard mill investments apart from others is its unique ability to consume mixed paper.

According to Pratt Industries, the company selected the Wapakoneta site for its containerboard mill because it is centrally located to its box plant and sheet plant network. The company says the mill will support the hub-and-spoke business model that Pratt Industries Global Chairman Anthony Pratt has used with success throughout the company’s history. The Wapakoneta mill also sits in the heart of the Midwest with access to more than 45 million people who generate recovered fiber that can be used for the mill.

All of Pratt’s containerboard mills have the ability to consume mixed paper, and Pratt Recycling President Shawn State says this factor alone sets the company apart from other paper mills. “We’re unique in that we’re the largest consumer of mixed paper in the country because we have the newest technology in our mills,” State says.

He says Pratt ensures the mixed paper coming from its vertically integrated material recovery facilities (MRFs) meet its standards. He adds that the company operates 18 recycling facilities that provide a large percentage of the feedstock to its five paper mills.

While Pratt’s recycling operations can ensure better movement of its recovered fiber because of its connection to Pratt mills, State admits this year has been difficult for all recyclers.

“In every region, commodity prices are low,” he says. “Recyclers are having a tough go of it all over the country. Pratt Recycling is in a much better position than some of the recyclers who are not vertically integrated. Other recyclers are trying to make a profit based on their costs and commodity prices, which we do the same, but when conditions are as difficult as they’ve been, we know we will still be here to operate because we still have to supply our mills, whereas some of the other recyclers that don’t have vertical integration have struggled.

“Now, I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom,” he continues. “There are some upgrades to paper machines in the U.S. occurring now. Some mills are doing conversions that will enable them to start running recovered fiber and/or run more recovered fiber than they have in the past. There are announcements of new mills starting up and idled mills being purchased. Capacity is going to come to the U.S.—that is going to affect the market and help drive commodity prices back up, but I think it’s going to take a little bit of time.”

Recycled focus

Using recycled materials is key for Pratt Industries: It’s something that the company has prided itself on since a few years after Chairman Anthony Pratt brought the company to the U.S. in the 1990s.

Pratt entered the U.S. market in the early 1990s when it purchased a kraft paper mill in Macon, Georgia. (It sold that asset more than 20 years ago.) Shortly after that acquisition, Pratt bought JetCorr and Georgia Box Group, local corrugators and converters in the Southeast. In 1995, the company built its first 100-percent-recycled paper mill in the U.S. in Conyers.

Since the mid-1990s, Pratt has operated a number of paper mills, recycling facilities and box plants to ensure it has a vertically integrated company with the ability to grow and expand its presence in the U.S. “Our recycling facilities support our mills, the mills support the box plants and the box plants support our converting operations,” State says. “One of our competitive advantages is our ability to ‘close the loop.’ We will collect recovered fiber (boxes) through our recycling network and then take that box that Pratt made and turn it into another box that [customers] can buy that Pratt made. It’s kind of like a circular economy within the company.”

Pratt Industries has launched five 100-percent-recycled paper mills, with locations in Conyers; Staten Island, New York; Shreveport, Louisiana; Valparaiso, Indiana; and Wapakoneta. It also has opened 18 recycling facilities across the U.S. The company also operates a total of 54 corrugated box plants and converting facilities, which ensure Pratt Industries is vertically integrated.

The Conyers MRF, near Atlanta, is Pratt’s newest recycling facility, which was built four years ago. State says it’s also the company’s largest MRF and handles residential recyclables from the city of Atlanta, DeKalb County and the surrounding area. He says 9,000 tons of curbside collected recyclables run through the MRF monthly.

“There was a need for a facility in the Atlanta market,” State says. “We also need the fiber supply for our paper mill in Conyers, and it made sense to place it right next to the paper mill for the cost reasons. There’s essentially no freight from the MRF to the mill.”

Because of the size of the Conyers MRF, the company also invested in “state-of-the-art” technology for the facility. State says the MRF features optical sorters and ballistic separators. He adds that the company is working to install more optical sorters and robotics in the first quarter of 2020.

Getting the word out

Beyond helping the recycling industry by consuming recovered fiber, Pratt has taken steps to work with municipalities to clean up residential recycling streams and debunk recycling myths circulating in mainstream media. Michael Altobelli, Pratt Northeast region recycling vice president, says there has been “so much negative press … about recycling and the recycling crisis” in the last year, which has led to confusion in municipalities among residents.

To address some of the confusion in New York City, Pratt Industries launched the Manhattan Paper Challenge this summer. From July 1 to June 30, 2020, the 12 community boards in Manhattan will compete to see which board can achieve the highest increase in its paper recycling rate. The top three community boards will receive grant prizes each quarter, and an annual prize will be awarded to the top three boards next summer.

The initiative aims to increase paper recycling participation in Manhattan. Altobelli says Pratt wants to see the amount of paper recycled in Manhattan increase as result of the initiative.

New York City supplies about half of the material that Pratt’s Staten Island mill consumes, so Altobelli says it’s important that residents know the guidelines for recycling and about the need for recycled paper at Pratt’s mill in New York City.

“New York City is fortunate to have a paper mill in its city that can consume recovered fiber and to not have the same problem that many other large municipalities have today,” Altobelli says. “Pratt has a mill here using the majority of municipal mixed paper. New York City has a sustainable program and recognized how important it was to partner with an end user.”

Since opening in the late 1990s, Pratt’s New York City paper mill has produced more than 7 million tons of 100-percent-recycled paper. “We continually invest in educational programs in NYC, such as the Manhattan Paper Challenge, to ensure NYC residents are aware that the paper recycled right in this city is a valuable resource and is used to create high-paying green-collar jobs right here in the five boroughs,” State adds.

Growth opportunities

State has been working at Pratt Industries for the past 19 years, and he started working for the Pratt Recycling division about 12 years ago.

He says Pratt has a fast-paced, entrepreneurial culture that’s focused on growth, with Pratt Industries doubling in size about every five years.

“Capacity is going to come to the U.S.—that is going to affect the market and help drive commodity prices back up, but I think it’s going to take a little bit of time.” – Shawn State, president, Pratt Recycling

The company also has expanded its geographic footprint. Last year, Pratt Industries expanded to the West Coast when it opened a corrugated plant in central California after acquiring Robert Mann Packaging. Today, Pratt Industries has 70 factories in 27 states and 9,000 employees.

Pratt Industries Global Chairman Anthony Pratt says he firmly believes in the future of American manufacturing. In 2017, he pledged to invest $2 billion in the USA over the next decade to create 5,000 jobs, mainly in the Midwest. Since then, Pratt has invested about $800 million and is ahead of schedule on this commitment.

The company says Pratt also believes that America is over-packaged in comparison with Europe and Australia, which is why Pratt Industries’ mills specialize in producing lightweight liners and mediums to make boxes lighter yet just as effective as those made with heavier paper grades.

Since China backed out of the U.S. recovered paper market, State says Pratt has had the opportunity to consume more mixed paper and OCC.

“Mixed paper predominantly comes from households and curbside collection, so we’ve been able to consume material that others haven’t been able to consume,” State says. “That in turn has helped keep curbside programs going. It has to have a place to go.

“When Southeast Asia started clamping down on quality and cut off mixed paper from coming into their countries, Pratt was the go-to recycler and paper mill for these folks that had mixed paper that was generated from curbside systems.”

The author is managing editor of Recycling Today and can be reached at msmalley@gie.net.

Customers who make the grade

In these rapidly changing markets, we’ve been focused on assisting our customers to upgrade existing plants while also commissioning new installations that have the flexibility to prepare for the future. Whether it’s a new system from the ground up or existing system enhancements, operators have many options to consider when trying to reach the market’s high purity standards.

Cleaning the paper

We are seeing a major increase in the use of optical sorting to clean up paper, like one of our northeastern customers who installed four new TOMRA optical sorters and our paper magnet for a recent plant upgrade. This customer had a wide range of objectives for its series of plant upgrades, but a critical mission was to clean up its mixed paper. The upgrade has allowed our client to produce some of the cleanest mixed paper and OCC we’ve seen from a MRF. The MRF is consistently below 2 percent on its prohibitives in its mixed paper.

Preparation is key

Intelligent separation (optical sorters, robots, etc.) plays a pivotal role in reducing labor costs and making clean end products.

But for any of this technology to be successful, the material that is fed to it needs to be prepared properly. Optical sorters like a steady consistent “diet” of homogenized, single-layer, similarly sized material. Proper belt speeds, sizing screens, 440 screens, ballistic separators, air systems and other equipment help to prepare the material.

One of our new “prep steps” is our unique sizing deck—a screening process that acts to size and prepare material for downstream separation equipment. This allows both positive and negative sorting processes to be done more effectively, resulting in cleaner material. It’s a true game-changer in plant operation.

DeftAir keeps things stable

Another key piece of preparation equipment is our new DeftAir wind system. DeftAir allows operators to dramatically increase paper quality with intelligent separation while maintaining very high production rates.

The system sits in front of separation equipment and blows a steady stream of air to stop fiber and other lightweight materials from floating as the accelerator belt reaches speeds of 1,000 feet per minute. The combination of stable fiber and high speed ensures the optical sorters achieve maximum sorting efficiency, while the system achieves high production.

Two of our customers on either coast have installed DeftAir to increase the accuracy of their opticals, and several more units are going in.

Battling the film epidemic

Many operators are still running plants designed 10 to 15 years ago for substantial volumes of ONP. The angled screens in these plants were simply not designed for the high volume of lightweight plastic bags seen in today’s stream. The result, endless wrapping and screen cleaning.

Our customers have been upgrading their primary screening packages to specially designed non-wrapping 440 screens for the past three years. We have installed these screens at 24 different sites across North America with more units to come. They decrease our customers’ screen cleaning time from hours per shift to just 5-10 minutes, and so far have gained our customers up to an 85 percent reduction in replacement star costs.

RoBB AQC

Van Dyk introduces a robot that combines camera detection along with NIR recognition to make the ultimate quality control machine. The combined technologies allow RoBB to make accurate sorting decisions even in less than ideal material streams. With a small footprint, the unit is easily integrated into any sort line. Robustly constructed arm makes up to 70 picks per minute and does not require daily replacement of parts.

Positive sorting

Realizing the challenges postconsumer recycling was facing, Republic Services wanted to take a new approach to the greenfield recycling facility it was building in Plano, Texas. The innovative plant design incorporates numerous elements to enhance flexibility while delivering cleaner recovered materials.

To achieve substantially cleaner materials, the Plano facility was designed to do most of its sorting positively. Pulling material out of the processed stream has helped tremendously to reduce prohibitives, especially in the paper grades.

“We’re very pleased with the results of the positive sorting we’re doing here in Plano,” says Operations Manager Guillermo Pabon. “Our material is exceptionally clean, and our customers are very happy with it.”

This allowed the plant to pass an independent, third-party audit that validated just 1 percent contamination in the dirtiest of the paper grades. The use of positive, intelligent sorting has made a tremendous difference in overall material quality.

Another element of the plant that delivers enhanced flexibility for Republic is the incorporation of four fiber bunkers—one for OCC and three others. “Having the four bunkers has been incredibly helpful for us,” says Pabon. “We’re currently separating OCC and three grades of mixed paper; a good, better, best. Because of the way this facility works, even the good consistently has less than 1 percent prohibitives, which is very clean.”

Enhanced material flow

Uniquely, the Plano recycling facility features just one incline screen in the entire plant, and it’s the non-wrapping 440 screen. The screen requires only five to 10 minutes of cleaning daily yet provides an exceptional initial material cut to feed the container and fiber lines.

Another feature of the plant that has been instrumental to its positive sort is the unique sizing deck. This deck better prepares material for intelligent sorting downstream by more effectively creating an even layer of similarly sized material.

"We’re getting exceptionally clean sorts and, again, our customers have been very pleased with how clean the material is.” - Guillermo Pabon, Republic Services

With an eye for efficiency, the plant also is designed with one-touch material handling. This is the case for recovered commodities and for system outthrows. The one-touch design also helps to reduce material contamination throughout the plant.

At the beginning of the container line, the system features the elliptical sorter to float off all film prior to introducing the stream to optical and magnetic intelligent sorting.

“We’re capturing PET, HDPE and PP,” says Pabon. “Three of our seven optical sorters are dedicated to this work. We’re getting exceptionally clean sorts and, again, our customers have been very pleased with how clean the material is.”

Finally, the end of the container line features a loop-track. This is designed so any material that might have been missed is captured and delivered to the appropriate bunker. “At the end of the container line, after the eddy current separator, our second chance line recirculates material to increase our recovery rates. This has proven very effective at reducing missed material,” adds Pabon.

Increased efficiencies

To create a true production environment, the plant also is designed with a mono-platform. All the sorters and the operations manager’s office are on a single level.

“We absolutely love the mono-platform design,” says Pabon. “From our operations cabin, we have a clear view of all the sorters, and it’s a key part of our employee safety protocol.”

The system also was designed to allow for direct baling of commodities that do not need to be processed. Each of the storage bunkers are able to feed either of the system’s two balers, providing complete redundancy.

Overall, the efficiencies designed into Republic’s Plano recycling facility make it a true plant of the future, one that has flexibility, high production and the ability to produce uniquely clean commodities.

Helping customers

Over the past year, Van Dyk also has been expanding our operations to better serve customers.

• Our new Norwalk facility has become fully operational.
• We’ve grown our customer-focused staff.
• Van Dyk University has held more classes.
• Van Dyk Direct has become the standard for many plant operators.

This past year saw the final move from Stamford, Connecticut, to our new, state-of-the-art 150,000-square-foot campus in Norwalk, Connecticut.

The new facility encompasses the technology and testing center; baler rebuild shop; the Van Dyk Direct parts warehouse; Van Dyk University classrooms; engineering and customer support facilities; project management and administrative offices.

We have added four new service technicians to support our growing installation base and an additional controls engineer to assist with our growing work on plant retrofits. An additional two project managers (increasing that department to six) help ensure the continued smooth installation of plant builds and retrofits.

Van Dyk University hosted 11 week-long training programs throughout the past year for baler and optical sorting training. Alumni from these programs have found increased independence in ongoing maintenance and, when necessary, repair of their equipment.

We’ve also seen a rise in the number of customers ordering replacement parts and service kits through Van Dyk Direct. Today about 70 percent of our customers use the online portal to quickly and easily order parts when they need them.

We have conducted over 20 tests in our Test Center. The majority of these tests are our customers bringing their own material to run on our continuous loop system, but we have also had consumer goods companies test for sortability of different packaging. These tests not only help our customers see potential results before purchasing equipment, and consumer packagers design more recoverable packaging, but they also teach us how to design new and better systems for our customers.

In early April of this year, Giordano’s Recycling, Vineland, New Jersey, was the site of a three-alarm fire that originated in a pile of old corrugated containers (OCC). While the company’s Nick Giordano says employees evacuated safely from the facility, the same cannot be said of Giordano’s Recycling 18-year-old IPS baler, which was lost in the fire.

In short order, Cordele, Georgia-based Harris helped Giordano’s Recycling get back to baling the various recyclables it handles—high-grade paper; OCC; old newspapers; aluminum extrusions, siding and cans; polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles; and shrink wrap.

Giordano’s Recycling has been a long-time Harris customer, Giordano says. To repay that loyalty, Harris built and delivered a Centurion 200 two-ram baler to Giordano’s Recycling in eight weeks rather than in the standard 16-to-20-week window, he says. The baler was delivered prior to the July 4th holiday and installed during the second week of that month.

The Centurion is a high-performance two-ram baler designed specifically for medium-to-high-volume operations. It features a large shear knife that is thicker and taller than traditional two-ram baler knives to handle the increased shear force from the main ram cylinder.

As of early August, Giordano’s Recycling was still ramping up its baling operations, but Giordano says he’s already seen the benefits of the new baler.

“It has allowed me to cut the second shift,” he explains, citing the Centurion 200’s “fantastic throughput” for the reduction in operating time the company has seen.

Giordano describes the bales the Centurion produces as “perfect,” adding that they are “tight and dense” to facilitate handling and loading. He says only four or five bales are needed to cube out an export container, making loading more efficient and quicker for his team.

Preprogrammed settings that are accessed using the baler’s touch screen contribute to the Centurion 200’s ease of use, Giordano says. “It’s very efficient when it comes to production.”

The baler’s wide infeed hopper, measuring 86 inches by 117 inches, also contributes to its ease of use, as large boxes do not need to be downsized prior to feeding them to the baler, he says.

In addition to its Centurion baler, Giordano says his family’s company operates an HRB two-ram baler from Harris that it purchased in 1984 and a shear/baler/logger that it bought roughly 10 years ago and that Harris customized at Giordano Recycling’s request with two load tables. This modification allows the machine to be loaded from both sides.

“All around, it doesn’t matter what you are buying, Harris is a good brand and a good company,” he says. “One of the reasons that we use them is because they understand the need for excellent service and support.”

When Mid America Recycling, headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, needed a new single-ram baler for its material recovery facility (MRF) in Lincoln, Nebraska, Michael “Mick” Barry, co-owner of the company, says he was willing to do a lot of research to find the machine that would be the perfect fit.

The company had been using a baler that served the MRF well since the mid-1990s, but Barry says it was time for an upgrade by 2016.

“The baler was getting old,” he says. “It served a useful life and was a great baler, but the metal was wearing out and it was in a fatigued state. It was not worth rebuilding.” He adds that the baler model that the company had been using at its Lincoln MRF no longer had good service or parts availability in the U.S.

The Lincoln MRF receives both single-stream recyclables and commercial recyclables; the company needed a baler that could handle all its commodities in one machine.

After researching the baler market, Barry says Miami-based Imabe of America offered a solution that seemed like it would meet the production demands of the Lincoln MRF. Imabe’s single-ram Model H-120/2000 baler can handle a wide range of materials, which is just what the Lincoln MRF needed.

Although Imabe was a newer name in the U.S. marketplace at the time, Barry says he and his company were willing to invest in the single-ram baler Model H-120/2000 from Imabe after discussing the benefits of the baler in person with Cesar Benitez, CEO of Imabe, and after seeing the machine in action at facilities in Florida.

“The baler offered higher speeds, less maintenance and much higher tech than other balers that were available to us at the time,” Barry says. “What we saw on paper and in reality were true.”

So, Mid America Recycling took the next step to purchase and install the baler at its Lincoln MRF. Barry says the installation was memorable—Imabe personnel were willing to travel from Spain to Lincoln on Easter weekend in order to set up the baler. Imabe stayed in Lincoln for about a week during the installation and returned a few weeks later to make adjustments and answer any of Mid America Recycling’s questions.

Barry says Imabe’s owners were very involved in the whole installation process. Even a few years after the installation, he says they continue to check in periodically to ensure the baler is operating smoothly.

“We felt very comfortable with the owners,” he says. “They gave it the hands-on treatment; that’s how they do business. You felt like you were part of the family at that point. Imabe has great customer support. We have the ability to reach them during critical times; you have the ability to get an answer even during the off shifts.”

Mid America Recycling’s Lincoln MRF recently changed ownership groups and became Green Quest Recycling LLC in November 2018. The facility receives about 2,000 tons per month of material. To date, the Imabe single-ram baler continues to perform to the company’s demands. It also features unique diagnostic tools that inform Green Quest Recycling workers about its production levels by commodity for each shift of the day. Barry adds that it’s a good machine for plants that need to run 20 to 40 bales per hour that handle a wide range of materials.

“It’s been a great machine, it runs at the rates projected and it requires minimal maintenance,” he says. “We’re planning on using Imabe for replacements here in Des Moines when we get to that point. We’ll be replacing some of our other balers in Des Moines based on the performance from [the baler] in Lincoln.”