Rising recycling costs has led a small-town Maine recycler to close after 25 years.
Joyce Levesque, the manager of Hancock-based Coastal Recycling, which serves five towns, says a combination of rising prices, contamination and a dwindling market makes it “tough to keep the place open.”
She adds, “People aren’t recycling like they used to, and the prices are way down and the towns don’t want to up their appropriations. We’re not really making enough" to stay open.
Coastal Recycling accepts single-stream curbside recycling and serves as a drop-off location for newspaper, cardboard, plastic and aluminum cans. The organization will stop accepting material after April 27.
Levesque says Coastal doesn’t get as much material anymore, in part, because nearby towns have stopped collections. Gouldsboro, a neighboring town, stopped its recycling program last summer, citing rising costs. Levesque says tipping fees rose from $40 per to $140 per ton within three years.
When Levesque came to Coastal Recycling 19 years ago, she remembers working five days a week and processing cardboard for companies like Waste Management.
"Now I’m sitting on two loads of cardboard and the mills keep saying they’re not going to take anymore for a month of two,” Levesque says.
Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) reports manufactures in the northeastern U.S. have closed, making it hard for recyclers to find somewhere to ship and process material.
“The mills aren’t paying anything anymore. We have to take it to New York and they charge $1,500 per freight," Levesque says.
She also says contamination is an issue.
“When they started doing single stream, we said that was going to be demise of a lot of small recyclers, and it has been,” she says. “A lot of people think they can put anything in there, and that’s not the way it is. You’re still supposed to clean it and not have chairs and shoes in there. That’s not recycling. That’s dumping your trash, and consequently a lot of stuff from single stream goes to the landfill.”
Currently, most municipal solid waste (MSW) and recycling is either going to an incinerator or being sent to the landfill, Levesque says.
Some of the former Coastal Recycling towns plan to send recyclables to Fiberight, a Hampden, Maine-based waste-to-energy facility, which has yet to open. Fiberight would accept waste, single-stream recycling and organics.
“We’re supposed to get Fiberight, but some of the towns didn’t sign on with them, so they’re going to have to find a different avenue,” Levesque says.
NWRA releases federal agenda for Congress
The organization updated its agenda to lobby on behalf of the industry.
The National Waste and Recycling Association (NWRA) has released its Federal Legislative and Regulatory Agenda for 2019 in advance of the House and Senate finalizing committee assignments for members of the 116th Congress. This document stakes out the waste and recycling industry’s policy positions on three dozen federal issues. The agenda can be found on NWRA’s website.
“Last year, NWRA’s Government Affairs Committee approved 36 policy positions on the most pressing federal issues impacting the waste and recycling industry. We have updated these positions for 2019 to reflect changes in congressional priorities as well as our successes from 2018,” says NWRA President and CEO Darrell Smith in a press release. “We will continue our aggressive lobbying effort in support of these policies aimed at maintaining a strong and robust waste and recycling industry that benefits the American public.”
“NWRA welcomes the freshmen members of Congress. We look forward to engaging both sides of the political aisle to achieve bipartisan solutions on our industry’s top issues," says Jim Riley, the vice president for federal affairs and deputy general counsel.
Surge in industry-related fatalities in 2019
SWANA calls the level of industry fatalities this year "unprecedented."
To date, at least 17 fatal incidents have occurred relating to the solid waste industry in the U.S. and Canada in 2019, the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) says in a recent press release. SWANA is calling for a renewed focus on safety in response what it calls an “unprecedented uptick in fatalities.” Although there is no common denominator for the cause of all these accidents, SWANA says, reviewing safety fundamentals now will likely help prevent future incidents.
“The surge in fatal incidents involving solid waste personnel and vehicles in January is unprecedented in my 20-plus years in the industry and is unacceptable,” says David Biderman, the executive director and CEO of SWANA. “Regardless of who was at fault, each incident is tragic, and we urge all solid waste employers and employees in the United States and Canada to review their safety procedures and operations and commit to being safer in 2019.”
SWANA says it urges solid waste employers and employees in the U.S. and Canada to share this data and review their training and operations to help put an end to this series of deaths.
“The frontline employees of Waste Management have a continued focus on protecting themselves by following our operating rules and accepting safety as our core value without compromise. Industry fatalities are shared by managers with employees to build knowledge and raise immediate awareness,” says Jeff Martin, the vice president of the Houston-based Waste Management. “Sadly, the majority of industry employees are injured or killed outside of their trucks. With the continued increase of distracted motorists, all employees must remain 100 percent focused 100 percent of the time while serving our communities. A longer-term solution is moving to automated side-load trucks to ensure the securement and overall protection of drivers keeping them in the cabs.”
Recently, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the 2017 National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, identifying 30 fatalities among refuse and recyclable material collectors, making it the job with the fifth highest fatality rate in the U.S.
“Waste Connection’s first value is safety. The safety of our team members, customers and the communities we are privileged to work in, is of the utmost importance. As the societal distractions of cell phones, texting and mobile internet continue to create unsafe situations on the roadways we share, we will endeavor to raise the level of awareness to all unsafe behaviors and do our part to create safer roadways. We fully support SWANA’s initiative to eliminate unsafe behaviors from the waste industry and encourage all organizations to join us in supporting SWANA’s safety initiatives,” says Shawn Mandel, the vice president of Safety & Risk at Waste Connections, Ontario, Canada.
SWANA says the 17 industry-related deaths within the first 22 days of 2019 is a tragic reminder that the organization needs to keep pushing for a stronger commitment to safety from the industry, elected officials and the general public. SWANA says it will continue to focus on expanding its safety program with the goal of raising awareness and removing solid waste collection off the BLS’s list of most dangerous jobs.
“I share SWANA’s concern about the recent increase in fatal incidents involving waste collection vehicles. There have been two in New York already this year, and January isn’t even over yet. I will be working with other safety leaders in our chapter to provide additional safety resources and tools to members and non-members in the coming months,” says Paul Zambrotta, the safety director of Mr. T Carting of Brooklyn, New York. Zambrotta is the SWANA New York State chapter safety ambassador and a frequent speaker at industry safety events in New York City.
SWANA provides free resources on its Safety Matters webpage, which contains valuable tools for both collection and post-collection. SWANA will also host numerous safety events this year, including a live safety webinar at noon EST on Jan. 29. Safety issues will also be discussed at SWANApalooza in Boston, Massachusetts, Feb. 25-28, as well as at SWANA’s 7th Safety Summit at WASTECON in Phoenix Oct. 21-24.
For more information on SWANA’s safety programs, visit swana.org/safety.
Photo courtesy of C&C Manufacturing LLC.
Processing on the go
Several factors can help determine when it is best to bring a shear or baler to a work site.
Part of the scrap metal business model involves trucking material to large, centralized yards with high-volume processing equipment. Sometimes, however, metal recyclers must send out smaller, portable equipment to points of scrap generation.
Portable shear/baler/loggers and similar pieces of towable baling and shearing equipment have become an important processing option for companies that want to expand their access to material that may be situated a long way from their nearest yard.
Equipment vendors say several different situations arise that call for a portable scrap shear or baler to be brought in by trailer and set up on-site and several factors must be weighed when a company decides it is time to buy such a piece of machinery for portable use.
Suitable for many occasions
Geographic limitations always figure in to whether a scrap company opts to buy material, and similar calculations must be made when it comes to both buying and using portable balers or shears.
Within the right return on investment (ROI) parameters, however, a portable unit can be deployed in many different situations.
“Shear/baler/loggers can process many types of materials, including select No. 1 heavy melting steel (HMS), No. 2 HMS, loose tin, autos, appliances, aluminum and stainless steel,” says Bob Pfeffer, a product manager in North America for Europe-based Metso.
Curt Spry, sales manager for United States-based Al-jon/C&C Mfg., comments, “The shear/baler is very diversified, and capable of processing many types of scrap.” C&C, in addition to offering the Al-jon line of recycling machinery, distributes the Italy-made Ing. Bonfiglioli line of mobile scrap processing equipment.
Models on the equipment market have varying degrees of portability, but the cost and labor hours required to buy, maintain, move and set up such machines means destinations need to have enough scrap on site to be worthwhile.
Candidates to host a portable shear or baler are thus limited to a handful of major scrap generating situations. Says Pfeffer, “Shear/baler/loggers usually would be utilized for making the rounds at smaller feeder yards, demolition projects or [for] other cleanup requirements.” Some recyclers also use them to preprocess auto bodies at dismantling yards to acquire and prepare them for shredding.
While such machines are portable, they can nonetheless require special permits to be towed onto many roads and highways, says Pfeffer, and towing them “usually requires a four-axle tractor.” He adds, “The transportable unit does require a special multiaxle low boy trailer to be relocated within a facility or taken on the highway.”
Says Spry, “The Bonfiglioli line of portable gravity-fed shears requires a three-axle truck and an extended rail trailer.” Recyclers are choosing to meet those requirements, according to Spry, who adds, “The gravity-fed shear has really taken off in the marketplace due to its portability, cost of operation and production capabilities.”
Metso is among the manufacturers also offering a track-mounted model that can move from point to point once it is on location at a job site. “The track-mounted units are designed for movements within a scrap processing yard from stockpile to stockpile, and are not [as] suitable for the open road,” says Pfeffer.
Seeking the right ROI
Taking advantage of that open road with a portable shear or baler can be an opportunity, but it is one that has to be considered carefully, say vendors.
With larger units, “It is common to have a small geographical range for shear/balers, [since] most require extensive setup and tear down, making it difficult to move the machine around in the yard,” says Spry.
Pfeffer says most recyclers who seek offsite opportunities to use their portable units typically stay within a fairly limited geographical area. Large-scale demolition projects can be an exception, he says, with a larger scrap volume justifying a longer journey.
Taking advantage of the portability factor can be a main reason why smaller models often are a logical choice for many recyclers entering the onsite service sector.
“Our most popular units are either the 660-ton or the 700-ton models,” states Pfeffer, although he notes Metso also offers 880-, 1,000- and 1,100-ton models “in either mobile or transportable versions.”
He continues, “When speaking portability, size does matter. You really need to stay on the smaller end of the spectrum for the most versatility. The larger you go the heavier the unit is and the more expensive it is to move.”
Spry says he has found a warm reception for Ing. Bonfiglioli gravity-fed shears because “the gravity fed shear, in most cases, is easy to move.” The operator, he says, needs merely to “raise the hydraulic landing gear, back a trailer under the machine, lower the machine onto the trailer and you are off.”
That’s not to say, Spry adds, that there isn’t market for larger, higher-volume machines. “It always seems that you never build a big enough barn or garage, and the same is true with shears,” he remarks. “I guess [when selecting a model], it is to buy what you can afford or what you can justify with the material you are processing, and ask: What will be your ROI?”
The author is a senior editor with the Recycling Today Media Group.
JV targets plastics recycling in Hong Kong
Partnership brings together ALBA Group and Baguio’s waste and recycling division.
Recycling polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottles into secondary resins will be the primary focus of the new plant.
The facility is expected to be built within Hong Kong’s EcoPark and to be operational by the third quarter of 2020. Baguio was approved as a tenant at the EcoPark in late 2017.
The JV has been designed to combine the strengths of Baguio’s domestic collection network in Hong Kong with ALBA’s recycling technology experience and Swire Beverages’ marketing and advertising reach in the Hong Kong beverage market.
The facility will process postconsumer PET beverage bottles and HDPE personal care bottles, which the companies have deemed as collectable in the foreseeable future. The plant will include a near infra-red (NIR) sorting facility and two secondary resin production lines—one for food grade PET flake and the other for HDPE pellets.
Brian Taylor
