For almost all document destruction firms, commercial generation sank with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last spring. Many commercial customers closed offices from April to May of 2020 in response to the pandemic, leading to a decline in demand for secure document destruction services.

Document destruction companies report that commercial generation remained low for most of 2020 and continued to be low into this year. Many say their commercial customers did not begin to return to their offices until later in 2020 or into the first half of this year as vaccines became available.

The effects of the pandemic on document destruction services varied across the country.

In areas with fewer COVID-19 restrictions, such as Florida, commercial shredding services took a big dip at the onset of the pandemic and then returned. “We had that tough spell in April and May of 2020, and then we had some ups and downs throughout 2020, but overall, we were only down 5 percent in commercial generation compared with 2019,” says Jay Burns, president of Crown Information Management in Winter Haven, Florida, adding that the company is currently on track to achieve its “best year ever.”

He adds, “We’re blessed to have the governor who is pro-business in the state, so we haven’t had any major shutdowns.”

In parts of the country with stricter COVID-19 protocols, commercial generation remained depressed longer. Kari Talvola, president of Shred Works Inc. in Burlingame, California, told Recycling Today in February that commercial paper shredding was still limited. As of early October, she says, things are improving but not quite to prepandemic levels.

“Commercialwise, there are some accounts coming back,” she says. “Some accounts did close. But more is starting to come back; it’s just not as full as before.”

Since document destruction firms generally have faced lower commercial demand in the last two years, many took creative approaches to secure new business to make up for lost revenue.

A rise in residential services

In almost all parts of the country, document destruction companies say they have noticed an uptick in demand for residential paper shredding services this year. Promoting residential services helped some document destruction companies boost their revenues while commercial services were slower.

Don Adriaansen, president and CEO of Titan Mobile Shredding LLC in Pipersville, Pennsylvania, says he noticed a rise in drop-off services at this company since the second half of 2020.

“Residential shredding went up a little bit during the height of the pandemic,” Adriaansen says. “We have had a lot of drop-off shredding. That went up quite a bit toward the second half of 2020, and it has stayed pretty busy. A lot of people are cleaning out their houses, their offices and everything else because they are working from home. That’s been pretty steady and remains that way.”

Although Titan Mobile Shredding remains focused on serving its core commercial clients—which Adriaansen says make up the majority of his firm’s business—the company boosted awareness about its residential services last year.

“We promoted our shred bags and put that information on our website. We launched a new website in March 2021 and optimized residential terms,” Adriaansen says. “We didn’t aggressively go out to homeowners or do postcards or anything like that; we just made it so it was easier for people to find us on our website.

He adds, “Our residential business is certainly higher than what it was a year-and-a-half or two years ago, but it’s still a small fraction of what we do.”

In Spokane, Washington, DeVries Business Services took advantage of the increased residential paper shredding demand in the past year. The company’s President and CEO Patrick DeVries says demand for purges and cleanouts has gone up significantly. He estimates that residential business is “at least 50 percent busier than it ever was before” for his company.

With the pandemic, he says his company “turned up the heat” on promoting its “Seal N’ Shred” bags to residential customers and partnered with local commercial customers, such as nearby banks, to host shred day events.

One local bank his company services launched what he called “Shred Bag, Shred Day” events in the last year. He says DeVries provided Seal N’ Shred bags to each of the bank’s local branches to give to customers. Then on a set day, the bank’s clients would drop off the bags at that bank branch for DeVries Business Services.

DeVries says that partnership has helped to boost awareness about its residential services. “It enabled us to market one-off to these customers. They tell their friends through word of mouth. You see some of these clients come back now after they clean out mom and dad’s basement or their storage.”

Action Shred of Texas, owned by Dallas-based Texas Recycling, kept busy this past year supplementing its commercial shredding business by hosting more mobile shredding events.

“This has been the busiest year, probably in the last five years, for shred events,” says Dennis McCaslin, senior business development manager at Action Shred of Texas. He adds that the company has hosted 24 shred events in 2021, with six more events planned for the rest of the year.

McCaslin says Action Shred of Texas focuses on serving commercial clients during the workweek, while residential customers primarily are serviced at city-hosted shredding events on Saturdays. The increase in events is partly because of rescheduled events that were canceled because of COVID in 2020, but several cities book multiple events throughout the year, he adds. “We see the Saturday events as an additional revenue generator from noncommercial customers and a strategic way of expanding brand visibility with the general public,” McCaslin says.

Although many companies say residential business—be it through purge jobs or foot traffic at local shredding events—is up right now, they anticipate demand might die down in the coming years.

DeVries says purge business is strong right now but could decline with time. “Someone drops off a career’s worth of legal work, but they’re not recreating that [paper]. I think the purge volume will taper off or reduce itself over time once people get reset.”

Benefiting from a price boost

Despite setbacks in commercial generation in 2020 and 2021, document destruction businesses have benefited from stronger sorted office paper (SOP) prices in recent months. SOP prices—along with most recovered paper prices—were depressed in 2019.

Domestic SOP prices spiked from about $130 per ton in April of 2020 to almost $200 per ton in the May buying period because of unprecedented demand for tissue products across the United States. SOP pricing dropped back down by the summer of 2020 and remained lower until recently.

“In 2019, 2020 and the first half of 2021, the market was depressed,” Adriaansen says of SOP pricing. He adds that pricing has been strong since July.

While SOP prices have been strong for only a few months, Adriaansen and other document destruction firm representatives say the extra revenue right now certainly helps make up for slightly lower commercial generation.

“Having a little extra revenue from paper is very helpful,” Adriaansen says, adding that a lot of document destruction firms tend to use revenue from paper sales to help with equipment purchases.

Talvola says the higher SOP prices this summer and fall helped to make up for lost commercial generation.

But, she adds, “It would be really nice if we had strong volumes plus higher paper pricing. We definitely miss the volumes from commercial.”

While SOP prices are strong for the time being, document destruction firm owners know prices can tank at any moment as a result of various market conditions. Because of that, McCaslin says it’s important for document destruction firms to focus on what they can control such as delivering strong customer service and let the market fluctuation of paper grades take care of itself.

“At the end of the day, the company reputation is paramount and everything else usually follows,” he says.

Selling other services

In addition to promoting residential services and benefiting from high SOP prices, secure destruction firms fared better this past year if they offered more than just paper shredding services.

With softer commercial document destruction demand, McCaslin says Action Shred of Texas has focused on awareness and growth of its product destruction revenue in the last two years. He says Action Shred of Texas is one of the few paper shredding companies in Texas that has a facility, purpose-built equipment and expertise to manage product destruction projects. The company began offering product destruction services in 2015 and added an industrial shredder in 2018 to increase its service capabilities.

“So, once we get a product destruction customer who understands we can manage their job professionally and securely, we get their repeat business for the next project. We’re also getting referral business from our product destruction customers,” McCaslin says.

He adds, “We’ve shifted some of our marketing efforts to educate and attract new customers who may not be aware that product destruction services can be offered by a paper shredding company. At the end of the day, destroying proprietary products is as important as shredding confidential documents.”

Other document destruction firms are expanding into hard-drive destruction and record storage. DeVries says he is grateful his company is diversified to be able to handle setbacks in document destruction demand. In addition to document destruction, his firm offers media and hard-drive destruction, record storage, electronic recycling, scanning and courier services, as well as office moving, reconfiguration and cleanout services. He says, “I love when clients ask us, ‘What don’t you do?’ It’s a good feeling.”

Diversification could be the key to survival for many document destruction firms. Many company owners say some commercial paper shredding demand might not return and, in general, document destruction is declining as more documents are digitized.

“I’m curious about seeing the long-term effect of digitization and people working from home,” Adriaansen says. “I’m curious what effect that has on paper shredding. We mainly shred paper, but we are moving toward offering shredding for just about anything, and we’re going to continue to do that to use our equipment in any manner possible.”

The author is managing editor of Recycling Today. Email her at msmalley@gie.net.

Saying that recycling environments can be tough on equipment is like saying that water can be wet. This is typically seen as a fact by anyone who has ever spent time in such an environment. Special care and attention must be given to properly maintaining and servicing equipment in this environment, ensuring operational performance and uptime. This is especially true for forklifts.

Often thought of as the workhorse of the supply chain, most forklifts operate within warehouses, distribution centers or cross-docking facilities. While these supply chain environments offer their own set of challenges, they typically do not compare with the challenges that forklifts operating in recycling environments face daily.

Both indoors and outdoors, the recycling process can be very dusty and generate a fair amount of debris that can cause damage or negatively affect the performance of a forklift. Often, a recycling process can take place entirely outdoors, which introduces additional challenges, such as changing and unpredictable weather and dirt pathways filled with gravel, large potholes and ruts.

All of this can lead to increased maintenance costs and unexpected downtime for forklift fleets, which can undercut business profitability and growth.

So, what are owners or managers of recycling businesses to do when it comes to maintaining their forklift fleets? Consider eight steps to help give forklifts a fighting chance against the formidable recycling environment.

1. Pick the right forklift. Forklifts that can withstand harsh environments and extended operating hours require an industrial design. This can include an industrial engine with a cast iron head and larger, more robust components; fully enclosed brakes that are protected from debris and have fewer moving parts that can break down; pneumatic (super-elastic) tires that can withstand rough surfaces; rugged cast iron housing to provide thermal and impact protection for the transmission and axle; and a protected undercarriage that helps prevent damage from scrap metal.

2. Establish a strong maintenance program. Given the performance demands and potential hazards in harsh recycling environments, having a good maintenance program is essential. Correctly managing service intervals can spell the difference between profitable or unprofitable operations. Set and strictly follow regular service intervals, paying special attention to those parts of the forklifts that are affected most by the harsh environment. The goal is to keep the forklifts in operation while minimizing unexpected maintenance issues.

A strong and effective maintenance program has two invaluable components. A fleet maintenance management system can provide a simple and efficient way to capture and analyze total maintenance costs for individual forklifts and entire fleets across single or multiple locations. An operator and fleet management system enables you to monitor the health and performance of the lift trucks and ensure that maintenance is completed as scheduled. These systems also can guide operators through preshift checklist inspections, ensuring they are done completely and correctly, which can help identify potential maintenance and safety issues. They also monitor impacts and send notifications as they occur, which can trigger investigations that could identify safety issues or forklift damage resulting from the impact.

3. Invest in a telematics system. A good operator and fleet management system also will help you better understand how and when your forklifts are being used. Being armed with this information, you can make decisions about service and maintenance needs and better manage your resources. The data gathered also could uncover trends or issues that need to be addressed. For instance, if the data show that forklift impacts are routinely happening in one area of your operations, you can consider changing the layout of the area, designating an alternate route with fewer impacts or implementing speed restrictions. Additionally, if certain operators continue to have a high number of impacts, you can consider implementing incentives and additional training to ensure correct behavior.

© nordroden / stock.adobe.com

4. Analyze maintenance history. Tracking the maintenance history for each of your forklifts helps you identify trends, issues and best practices that occur within your service and maintenance program. A fleet maintenance management system can help document every maintenance issue with the forklift, including the cost of each repair or service, as well as planned maintenance and breakdowns. Operators can use this information to help you identify trends, be more proactive about repairs and make informed replacement/repair decisions.

5. Adopt a proactive approach. Having a good operator and forklift fleet management system in place also enables you to transition from a reactive service and maintenance program to a more proactive predictive one. This includes using historical data to understand use and to schedule regular service and maintenance to anticipate and eliminate potential issues before they result in unplanned downtime. If your historical data show that a particular part wears out on your lift trucks after a certain number of operating hours or points to the most likely cause of a service code, you can schedule your replacement/repair accordingly. If your forklift original equipment manufacturer provides a connected maintenance service, you might want to consider remote health monitoring. This type of service enables the forklift to “call for service” when it is “unhealthy,” which can lead to improved uptime. You also can create a proactive, planned replacement product life cycle formula unique to your organization.

6. Conduct annual equipment health assessments. If performing an assessment for the first time, you are establishing a baseline for future years. Create and maintain an accurate listing of your fleet. Take a photo of every single lift truck and document the age, serial number, hours of operation and the year it was added to your fleet. Moving forward, this will give you the ability to maintain an accurate profile of your fleet, including size, age and cost. By updating the list every year, you can better understand how your fleet changes and plan where you need to be in the future.

7. Track average cost per forklift. As forklifts age, the value they provide to your operations can decline based on increasing maintenance costs. The average cost per model will help you determine the ideal age limit for your forklifts. The formula compares the annual cost of the maintenance and repairs needed with the number of hours the forklift is used within the year. This gives you the cost per hour to operate that lift truck.

A high cost per model doesn’t automatically mean a forklift needs to be replaced, though. Other factors, such as how the forklifts are being used and the frequency of planned maintenance, could be involved. This is especially true in a recycling application. Numbers that are consistently higher than those suggested by your forklift manufacturer could point to necessary adjustments with your service maintenance program. An analysis of these factors is required when researching a potential forklift replacement.

8. Identify a planned maintenance (PM) to breakdown ratio. Establishing and closely monitoring your PM to breakdown ratio is a good indicator of how your service and maintenance program is performing. It’s as simple as tracking all invoices or work orders for your forklifts annually and comparing year-to-year numbers to get an average. Once you identify a ratio that best works for you, try to adhere to that ratio. Make sure to track whether the work orders arise from operator error/abuse or from routine planned maintenance or breakdown issues. This will help you identify additional areas where you can make improvements.

Recycling environments are no ordinary environments. Debris, dust, uneven surfaces and weather all can cripple a forklift, bringing your operation to a standstill. That’s why you must take every available step to help ensure a healthy fleet that minimizes downtime and keeps your operation productive.

Craig Bruns is vice president of customer support at Crown Equipment Corp., New Bremen, Ohio. More information is available at www.crown.com.

Supply and demand for stainless steel and other nickel-based alloys have fluctuated in the past few years. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted additional changes that ultimately affected supply and demand for these materials last year. But, as businesses have reopened and manufacturing conditions have improved this year, demand for stainless scrap is looking up, though perhaps not quite as strong as it looked just before the pandemic.

Reviewing recent history

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic influenced stainless steel and nickel-based alloy markets. Just before the start of that year, I attended an exciting Allied Alloys board meeting where we were optimistic about tackling the next 12 months.

Business was good and the outlook for the upcoming year was bright. Demand was strong for stainless steel, and the nickel market was holding at around $14,000 per metric ton. The appetite for stainless scrap around the globe was insatiable, so marketing our materials was not a challenge.

Yet the COVID-19 pandemic began to affect markets in the first quarter of 2020 as it spread beyond China to North America and other parts of the world. Stainless steel and nickel-bearing scrap consumers were spooked during the first quarter of last year and refrained from buying additional material. At that point, the nickel market started to steadily drop, along with markets for most other commodities. As of March, the nickel market took a nosedive, falling to almost $11,000 per metric ton. On the scrap side, stainless 304 went from 60 cents per pound to hovering around 40 cents per pound that month.

The drop in demand and pricing was experienced globally. Supply chains were fractured, while orders were delayed, rolled and often canceled. Restaurants and all types of businesses closed or shortened their operating hours. All logistics operations, including overseas shipping, rail, barge and over-the-road trucking, scaled back significantly from where they were prior to the pandemic.

Overall, the supply of stainless scrap and secondary nickel units in 2020 was dismal, but mills continued to melt material domestically and overseas, albeit at much lower quantities.

As fractured supply chains began to mend last year, stimulus money started flooding into the market by mid-2020. This caused an anomaly where scrap demand rose, outpacing availability everywhere. However, demand was still below prepandemic levels.

In mid-2020, some parts of Asia were incredibly hungry for scrap, including stainless grades. India led stainless steel scrap demand last year because the nation lacked domestic supply. India tends to be dependent on importing scrap to satisfy its needs. Demand also was healthy for stainless grades in Taiwan and Korea. Demand for scrap outside of these countries was lower, though.

By mid-2020, domestic stainless mills also were consuming scrap a bit more heavily than they had at the onset of the pandemic, albeit less than they had consumed in 2019. This helped to boost demand overall.

Super, or high-performance, alloys faced a different scenario last year. With super alloys, generation was good, but there was little demand. This affected alloys like Inconel 718, Waspaloy and other nickel-based high-temp alloys. Supply was up for these alloys last year, and large volumes of Inconel 718 and Waspaloy were purchased by stainless processors and blended into their stainless steel products.

Most aerospace alloys had little to no demand—general manufacturing, infrastructure and the oil and gas industry all had faced slowdowns because of travel restrictions related to the pandemic.

Boeing had contracts canceled at an alarming rate, and all airlines cut back on available flights. Additionally, revert, or internally generated, scrap more than satisfied demand for these alloys and also flooded the market.

© SOLUB / stock.adobe.com

The picture today

Demand for stainless scrap is up this year, and supplies aren’t quite on par with demand. We have been close to experiencing a scrap shortage. If not for the tremendous amounts of nickel alloy scrap generated, things could have looked very different this year.

Today, we still enjoy a good flow of nickel units via super alloys, but pricing for the material is substantially higher as consumer demand for nickel-based alloys has returned. However, little to no product is available for purchasing because most super alloy stocks were sold off to stainless processors.

Demand for stainless steel is strengthening as the fourth quarter advances. Prices are rising in response to this strengthening demand. Nickel rose all the way to $20,000 per metric ton earlier this year, while molybdenum rose to $20 per pound and iron units also hit substantial highs.

Demand is healthy for stainless scrap as of mid-October, particularly within the United States. Demand also exists in India, Taiwan, Korea and Europe.

However, as of this fall, many logistical issues have been affecting scrap markets and the movement of material. Containers and vessels for ocean shipping remain hard to come by, and trucking also is expensive and delayed in many cases.

Although supply chains are still broken, demand is rising in many sectors, nonetheless. Unlike in 2020, aerospace demand has picked up. We have seen immense interest from that segment for certain high-temp nickel alloys, such as Inconel 625, Hastelloy C276 and Inconel 718. Demand also has returned from the oil and gas industry, infrastructure and manufacturing. Automotive demand is huge and has only been tempered because of the semiconductor chip shortage this year.

As far as considering the future outlook for stainless steel scrap, I would make the assumption that COVID-19 is becoming less of a problem with science and health care investing so much time and research into solutions. The pandemic remains an issue, but solutions such as vaccines and other treatments are preventing the serious lockdowns that were the norm in 2020. Therefore, demand looks strong as the world continues to open up.

Additionally, if a U.S. infrastructure deal passes, it will place more pressure on mills to consume and produce materials. This will improve demand and provide new opportunities for stainless scrap. Overall, commodity prices have experienced large increases as the world economy has emerged from the worst of the pandemic. We expect pricing will remain strong if businesses stay open in the near-term future.

Mitch Greenberg is a partner at Allied Alloys, which is headquartered in Houston. Visit www.alliedalloys.com for more information.

1. We renegotiated an extension of our contract with the city by committing to an upgrade of our 15-year-old MRF. What is the next step that we need to take?

Congratulate yourself! Then, you’ll want to nail down your plan for handling your material while your retrofit is installed. Can you erect a temporary system or partial process? Scalp the large old corrugated containers (OCC), remove glass and bale the rest until you are operational. If not, perhaps another processor can handle your volume. Have a clear idea of your full and partial downtime and develop a plan for associated costs as well as the disruption of revenue.

2. How do we ensure the new retrofit meets the processing requirements?

You know your current composition. Or do you? Time for a deep dive audit. Consider any unique characteristics in your area, as well as any changes you have seen in past years (less old newspaper, more OCC, more film, more food trays). Estimate possible future volume from population growth or additional contracts to service nearby cities. If your new contract includes material from commercial businesses, consider how much commercial volume is available and how you intend to process it (blended with residential or kept separate).

3. How much should we invest in automation?

The technology you invest in depends on how much sorting your material needs and what end products you intend to make. Don’t forget end-of-line options such as automated storage bunkers that save the time and labor of manually pushing commodities to the baler feed conveyors. A central conveyance system can collect all trash in one place, eliminating multiple trash points. A “last chance” recovery optical sorter can be more productive than a manual recovery station. Investing in two balers provides security in case of downtime—but your system must be designed to bale every commodity in either baler.

4. How do we prevent problems with sourcing labor for the MRF?

Research labor trends in your area. Know the going wage, the available labor pool and the largest employers. If a company like Amazon is a popular employer in your area, know that you likely won’t attract quality workers to do a much dirtier job for a lower wage. Also, see the previous question. How many mechanics, operators and manual sorters you need will depend on the level of automation you build into your retrofit.

5. What tips would you offer for securing end markets for commodities?

Markets change, as do end customers. Flexibility is key. Build your retrofit with flexibility and you’ll be able to make separate or blended grades as needed to fit trends. Know what end markets are available to you, have backups for each commodity and know the quality that each requires for fetching top dollar. Some even offer a premium for exceeding those specs. If you are able to load railroad cars or to load shipping containers on a nearby rail service, you can expand your possibilities.