MRF Owners, Builders Look to Maximize Quality

The trend appears to be toward designing and operating material recovery facilities geared to handle commingled recyclables. Fortunately, new equipment and systems are being developed that give operators more bang for the buck.

Automating material recovery facilities (MRFs) is an effective way to extract higher value recyclables. However, installing more innovative equipment, while reducing labor costs, results in a major upfront expenditure for any given facility.

The changing dynamics, especially on the collection end, are dictating a different approach for processing facilities. The combination of waste management firms looking to minimize collection costs, municipalities attempting to increase their collection rates, and MRF operators striving to bring the best quality material to the marketplace often conflict.

Material recovery facilities are undergoing large changes. At the same time, the market for post-consumer recyclables has softened. With prices for most recyclables low, it is becoming more difficult to run a recycling facility cost-effectively. Paper prices, including old newspaper, have been sluggish at best, making it more difficult to justify added costs through better equipment.

Another quandary is that with less automation and more commingling of material, there often are higher costs to dispose of the residual material. The residual level is basically the non-recyclable material that is included with the recyclables.

MRF operators are thus met with two different and contrasting demands: With lower prices for most recyclables, it becomes harder to cost-justify the added expense of putting in new equipment. At the same time, there is pressure by consumers of the recyclables to process higher quality material.

This dichotomy is creating pressure on MRF operators. For many operators, dependent on waste management companies to get an adequate amount of material into their processing facilities, there is very little negotiating possible. As such, some MRF operators have little say so regarding in what form recyclables are brought to their plant. According to some operators who requested anonymity, the residual rate at some MRFs that take in commingled material may reach as high as 40%. The higher disposal level is factored in with the overall cost to run the facility.

The third part of the equation is that more collectors of the material tend to prefer a commingled collection program to keep collection costs down.

All these positions work to make it more difficult to operate a material recovery facility in a cost-effective manner.

GLASS SITUATION IS FRAGILE

One problem appears to be the quality issues that crop up when trying to sort out the three different types of glass containers. One glass processor says, “Historically, a three mixed system, mixed with other recyclables, results in a deterioration of quality.” By going to a single stream, the recyclables go toward a higher total recovery level. However, typically there is a greater amount of residue left over.

With glass markets presently poor in many regions, it makes it more imperative to have the best and cleanest sort for glass. Yet, with more curbside programs opting to place all their recyclables together, it becomes more of a challenge to maintain the integrity of the different glass types.

For glass processors, one advantage is that some consumers of the recyclable glass have changed their specifications to allow for a slightly reduced quality level of glass that can be taken in.

Regardless, to get a fairly decent sort requires a significant labor effort, which can be expensive for MRF operators.

CAN AUTOMATION CURE MULTI-STREAM SHORTCOMINGS?

One step for improving the quality of the material is through the addition of various types of equipment. By installing various screens, magnets, conveyor lines and other materials, a commingled load of recyclables can be more carefully sorted. Growing from roots that include the most rudimentary pieces of equipment, newer systems have been added that may be able to differentiate between different types of paper fiber.

The move to increased automation offers some possibilities. With critics and proponents both seeing some value in single-stream processing, the trend does indeed appear to be heading toward a single-stream approach. This is especially true as municipalities and waste haulers look to keep their handling costs as low as possible.

According to Frank Killoran, with CP Manufacturing, an equipment manufacturer based in National City, Calif., a problem with source separating recyclables at the front end (collection) is the much higher cost when splitting between paper and containers and other recyclables. He points out that in a two-compartment collection vehicle, the side taking the paper may fill up more quickly, forcing a truck to return to deposit the load more quickly than it would have if the material was placed in the same container.

With a commingled load of recyclables there are some inherent problems. However, equipment can often take care of many of the sorting problems.

In the recycling/waste management industry now, all companies are looking to lower costs. And, with many waste management companies collecting recyclables to obtain the waste management account, there is a goal to collect as much as possible with a minimal expenditure used. How viable is this move? Many of the more recent acquisitions are being driven by cities that are awarding contracts with a caveat that the winning bidder also must offer recyclables collection services.

To obtain the account, waste management companies offer the service.

Back at the MRF, the collected material may run the gamut. This could be why anecdotal reports are contending that some MRFs with commingled collection have a residual level of 40% or more.

One of the largest owner/operators of MRFs in the United States is FCR Inc., Charlotte, N.C. The company operates 18 residential MRFs as well as other facilities for both commercial and residential material. The company is a division of KTI Inc., Guttenberg, N.J., one of the fastest growing publicly traded waste management and recycling companies in the United States. Despite the trend at other MRFs, all but one of the FCR MRFs are two stream systems. (The one exception is the Greensboro, N.C., plant.)

According to Dick White, a representative for FCR, the main reason for the two-stream system is to assist the company’s secondary fiber sales. In addition to collecting and processing recovered fiber, FCR has a number of cellulose manufacturing plants that require recovered fiber.

“Markets will not accept contaminated paper,” White stresses. And, with mills able to be more discriminating due to the abundance of paper and the inexpensive price, mills are more willing to pick and choose only the best quality material. This could leave plants that source and market material from single stream facilities at a significant disadvantage, some observers believe.

HOPES RISE FOR PHOENIX MRF

The city of Phoenix has had good success with its single stream MRF. Carl Smith, with the city of Phoenix’s recycling division, says the city’s MRFs—one that is six years old and a second that opened this past September—both use a system made by Bezner Manufacturing Co. of Ravensberg, Germany. Bezner offers a design that uses shakers, incline tables and other methods to extract various types of recyclables from the recycling stream.

The original MRF is owned and operated by Hudson Baylor, while the second MRF, opened last year, is owned and operated by USA CRInc.

What is impressive about the system is that Phoenix collects more than a handful of recyclables. The city collects multiple types of plastic; various paper grades, including chipboard and mixed paper; containers, both aluminum and steel; and various types of glass.

The Bezner technology, along with manual sorting systems, helps to sort out the various types of recyclables being collected. The technology consists of a variety of inclined conveyors that act to sort out the different types of materials.

According to Smith, vibration allows cans and bottles to separate. Magnets pull the steel cans from aluminum cans, and manual sortation extracts the various types of paper.

After all the sortation is done, what is left for disposal is broken glass, dirt and modest amounts of other non-recyclables.

While the original MRF handles a wide range of grades, the new system is attempting to become an even more sophisticated operation. The MRF will be marketing part of its old news to a nearby Abitibi-Consolidated newsprint mill. To market to mills the MRF is sourcing ONP into cleaner grades, labeled No. 8 and No. 7 news.

Sponsored Content

SENNEBOGEN 340G telehandler improves the view in Macon County, NC

An elevated cab is one of several features improving operational efficiency at the Macon County Solid Waste Management agency in North Carolina. When it comes to waste management, efficiency, safety and reliability are priorities driving decisions from day one, according to staff members of the Macon County Solid Waste Management Department in western North Carolina. The agency operates a recycling plant in a facility originally designed to bale incoming materials. More recently, the building has undergone significant transformations centered around one machine: a SENNEBOGEN telehandler (telescopic handler).

Sponsored Content

SENNEBOGEN 340G telehandler improves the view in Macon County, NC

An elevated cab is one of several features improving operational efficiency at the Macon County Solid Waste Management agency in North Carolina. When it comes to waste management, efficiency, safety and reliability are priorities driving decisions from day one, according to staff members of the Macon County Solid Waste Management Department in western North Carolina. The agency operates a recycling plant in a facility originally designed to bale incoming materials. More recently, the building has undergone significant transformations centered around one machine: a SENNEBOGEN telehandler (telescopic handler).

SORTING OUT THE OPTIONS

While the trend may be toward commingled recyclables, there are many who feel the quality between source separated and commingled is significant. One critic points out that with a commingled load, mixed glass within the load is a significant problem. This creates an overall problem in disposing of the residuals.

Further, some critics point out, sorting through commingled materials is labor intensive, translating into a more expensive sortation.

While the quality of the material is iffy, with more waste management companies having to collect recyclables if they are to obtain the waste hauling contract, more operations are being designed to allow for the most cost-effective way to extract the recyclables, according to Killoran.

Regardless, there are more systems being put in place that will allow for more of an automatic sortation. In addition to the Bezner technology, the Lubo StarscreenTM system is also generating interest.

Wilfred Poiesz, west coast sales manager for Van Dyk Baler, distributor of the Starscreen system, feels one of the biggest advantages to the Starscreen method is the speed of the line. The line can run at 600 feet per minute, and can thus handle a greater amount of recyclables, improving economies of scale.

Also, early in the sortation process, ONP is diverted. This makes sense since ONP constitutes in many residential MRFs the largest portion of the recycling stream. The remaining material is then run through a negative sort, which leaves the desired material ready to be processed.

The improvement of automated sorting systems has created demand for equipment such as the Starscreen sorting system. According to Bill Moore, president of Moore & Associates, a consulting firm for the paper recycling industry based in Atlanta, five years ago there were no Starscreens. Now, there are between 50 and 100 of these systems in operation.

These sorting devices are able to separate not only different recyclables, but are able to pull out different types of fibrous material.

Regardless of whether a MRF operator opts to go with more automation or manual sortation techniques, the changing dynamics of the recycling industry will likely dictate that a wider range of materials will be collected. At the same time, consumers of recyclable materials will be looking for the cleanest possible load of the material.

Specifications may change, but adhering to quality standards will require MRF operators to continually work to bring the cleanest material they can to market.  (The author is senior editor of Recycling Today.)