Pratt Industries USA Inc., a paper company based in Conyers, Ga., will be holding the official grand opening of its newest material recovery facility (MRF) in Duncan, S.C., June 19, 2012.

The company has invested $3.5 million in the facility. It is expected to handle rediential and commercial single-stream recyclables drawn from a 100-mile radius.

“It’s a great day in South Carolina when another one of our existing businesses decides to increase its footprint in our state,” says South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in a news release. “We celebrate Pratt Industries’ investment in Duncan and the creation of 30 new jobs.”

In addition to accepting curbside single-stream from area cities and counties, the facility also processes single-stream recyclable material from commercial accounts of manufacturers, retailers and distribution centers.
 

Cleveland area nonferrous scrap recycler Conversion Resources LLC is changing its name to American Iron & Metal Cleveland LLC.

Conversion Resources, founded in 1983 and located in Macedonia, Ohio, was purchased by Montreal-based American Iron & Metal (AIM) in 1999. The name change has been made to rebrand the location as part of the AIM group of companies, according to an AIM news release.

AIM has more than 40 operating facilities throughout North America. The company concentrates on ferrous and nonferrous metal recycling, demolition, manufacturing and transport businesses. With annual sales in excess of $1.6 billion and 2,000 employees, AIM describes itself as one of the world’s largest privately held metal recycling companies.

American Iron & Metal Cleveland LLC operates from a nearly 80,000-square-foot facility in Macedonia. It offers scrap metal recycling programs for manufacturers as well as risk management for generators of nonferrous scrap, including red metals, aluminum and high-temperature alloys.

 

UNTHA Shredding Technology America Inc., based in Hampton, N.H., has introduced the RS 150 four-shaft shredder to the U.S. market. The 500-horsepower RS 150, part of the established RS Series, stands 20 feet tall.

Austria-based UNTHA Shredding Technology GmbH already has installed nine RS 150 shredders worldwide, including two in the United States, with another three installations planned.

The four-shaft shredding system first coarsely shreds material and then finely shreds it, all in a single operation.

“More than 30 years of expertise is built into the RS Series,” says Bernhard Mueggler, president and CEO of UNTHA America. “We have a few thousand of these shredders in daily operation around the globe.”

“Scrap yards love it because it increases the volume of material they can process, allowing them to boost sales,” says Charles Hildebrand, regional sales manager for UNTHA. “Circuit board-refining companies use it to shred circuit boards then refine the precious metals they contain, such as gold, silver and copper. Refrigerator recyclers are also getting on board because once the compressors are removed and the Freon is drained out, this machine can gobble up entire refrigerators. It’s an amazing multi-purpose product.”

According to UNTHA, the RS 150 shredders are designed to handle products as diverse as sheet metal casings, aluminum rims and tubes; electronic scrap, IT and telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and tools; hazardous waste; tires; copper and aluminum cables, spring mattresses, pulper ropes, carpets and Gore-Tex rolls.

“The flanged cutter reduces the load on the shaft and makes it more difficult for debris to get between the cutters,” says Hildebrand. “The ventilated shaft also keeps debris out from under the cutter so it doesn’t build up or get caught. Both of these features reduce downtime.”

The cutters are held in place by heavy-duty springs designed to disperse the load evenly and reduce the stress on the machine and extend the driveshaft’s life. The RS 150 also has UNTHA’s patented Torque Drive System, designed to combine the flexibility of a hydraulic drive with the reliability of an electric drive. “You get full torque from zero speed and infinite reversing options,” Hildebrand says. “There is no risk of blowing an oil line, and the need for maintenance is greatly reduced.”

One of the first companies in the United States to acquire the RS 150 is ARCA Advanced Processing in Philadelphia. “The RS 150 has exceeded our expectations in many ways,” says Brian Connors, president of ARCA. “The quality of construction, throughput, durability and design for maintenance are all outstanding. We expect the total cost of ownership to be exceptional. The RS 150 has features and attention to detail we have not seen in any other manufacturer’s products.”

“The RS 150 is the most reliable, lowest-cost-to-operate shredder of its size you can buy,” says Hildebrand. “It can be customized to a wide range of industries, and we feel it will be the last shredder your company will ever need. It’s powerful, high-performance and made to last.”
 

Covanta Energy Corp., a waste management and renewable energy services company, has officially opened a metal recycling system at its energy-from-waste (efw) facility in Fairfax County, Va. The company, headquartered in Morristown, N.J., says the new metals recycling system is the first of its kind in North America. The system has been designed to recover small particles of non-ferrous metal; and the company says the operational commencement represents a milestone for Covanta’s organic growth initiative.

“Improving efficiency and sustainability are key aspects of our culture and as such, we are continuously looking for new ways to recover value from waste and divert materials from landfills,” says Seth Myones, Covanta’s COO. “I’m proud of the way our team recognized the opportunity to recycle additional non-ferrous metal and quickly got this new system up and running.”

In March Covanta announced a strategic alliance with Steinert US Inc. for non-ferrous metal recovery systems. The partnership supports the implementation of non-ferrous systems at Covanta facilities that currently do not have them, as well as enhancing systems such as Covanta’s Fairfax operations.

“We are proud to have achieved one of the highest recycling rates in the state at 47 percent and work hard to continually improve the recovery of recyclable materials,” says Joyce Doughty, director of Fairfax County’s Division of Solid Waste Disposal and Resource Recovery. “The new recycling system at the efw facility complements our recycling initiatives very nicely and is a great example of how energy recovery and robust recycling programs can go hand in hand.”

According to Covanta, last year the company’s 41 efw facilities in North America recovered for recycling more than 400,000 tons of ferrous and more than 15,000 tons of non-ferrous metal. In addition to recovering ferrous and non-ferrous metals, Covanta’s efw facilities convert around 20 million tons of solid waste into 9 million megawatt hours of electricity and create more than 9 billion pounds of steam.