American Baler, Bellevue, Ohio, has announced that it has expanded its dealer network. The manufacturer of closed-door horizontal balers, auto-tie horizontal balers and two-ram balers has added the following dealers:

• Jim and Adam Langley of AA Fluid Power, Sumiton, Alabama, will represent Alabama and Mississippi;
• Wayne Crigler and Julian Hailey of Crigler Enterprises, Mableton, Georgia, will represent Georgia;
• Sean Justin, Kim Hayes and John Greider of DeHart Recycling Equipment, St. Louis, will represent   Missouri and Kansas; 
• Nick Jobson of Jarshire Waste & Recycling, Slough, England, will represent the United Kingdom; and
• Poul Steffensen and Henning Norgaard of WamaTech, Odense, Denmark, will represent Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Germany and Greece. 

Information on contacting the company’s new dealers is available at http://americanbaler.com/find-a-dealer.  

The Recycling Partnership, Falls Church, Virginia, had agreed to provide seed money for the purchase of 7,000 residential recycling carts if Emmet County, Michigan, could raise funds to cover the balance of the cost. Thanks in part to a grant the county received from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, as well as funding from 16 other sources, the county was able to meet this requirement, and cart distribution will begin the summer of 2016.

“According to The Recycling Partnership, we’re the only one to fund our carts this way,” says Elisa Seltzer, director of Emmet County’s Public Works Department. “We were going to just expand to a few of our curbside communities first, but they said they'd give us the money if we can hand them out to everyone.” 

The grant dollars will assist Emmet County with purchasing new recycling carts for the communities of Petoskey, Harbor Springs, Bear Creek Township, Little Traverse Township and Resort Township. Additionally, the county will receive assistance with a customized public education campaign and with technical planning to support the cart deliveries to its 7,000 households. The participating communities will maintain their dual-stream recycling system with the conversion to carts. The carts will hold paper, boxes and bags, while existing totes will hold bottles, cartons, jugs and jars, according to a news release from The Recycling Partnership.

Jeff Meyers, The Recycling Partnership development director, says, “Emmet County originally applied for a 2015 cart grant to transition two of their five communities with curbside to carts. Though they were not selected in the first round, they still had a great project. When some additional grant money opened up, we approached them with an offer of funding and a challenge to fundraise from local companies that use recycled materials. This project is a great example of when the recycling supply chain comes together to make change, everyone wins.”

Emmet County joins seven previous communities that have received cart grants, including Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Richmond, Virginia. While The Recycling Partnership says each engagement is unique, they share the goal of improving access to convenient recycling and strong outreach for residents, resulting in more recovered tonnage for manufacturing feedstock.

“I am extremely encouraged by the results to date from The Partnership’s city engagements and have high hopes for the future of the Emmet County program,” says Stephen Sikra, materials science and technology manager at the Procter & Gamble Co. “The county successfully recovers a diverse mix of recyclables, including plastic films, and increasing the curbside recycling capacity through carts is a best management practice worth supporting.”

Megan Daum, vice president of sustainability for the Can Manufacturers Institute and chairman of The Recycling Partnership, says, “As a founding member of The Recycling Partnership, The Can Manufacturers Institute is proud to support this work in Emmet County. It is a unique partnership story that highlights the power of relatively small grant dollars to leverage dramatic improvements in curbside recycling. We look forward to celebrating a successful cart distribution with the Emmet County and the recipient communities this summer.”

The Appingedam, Netherlands-based company Bollegraaf Recycling Solutions has completed installation of a plastics sorting system at Daly Plastics, Zutphen, Netherlands. The capacity targets for the modular system were exceeded by more than 50%, according to Bollegraaf, separating 7 tonnes of plastics per hour. This enables Daly Plastics to realise its ultimate goal—production of regranulate for use as raw material in high-quality new products, the equipment supplier says.

“We chose Bollegraaf because their quality was higher than all other candidates and they possess the necessary expertise in the design, engineering, construction and supervision services required for the installation of an innovative system like this,” says Peter Daalder, director of Daly Plastics.

“Another important reason for selecting Bollegraaf’s systems is their robust yet flexible nature due to the modular structure. Recycling of waste is a process that is continually changing. If the range of materials for recycling changes, then the system can be easily modified and restructured without incurring high costs,” he says. “In addition, they are a reliable partner who provide all of the knowledge and services required to optimise processes and get the most out of the systems.

Frits Eding, project manager at Bollegraaf Recycling Solutions, says, “Daly Plastics’ goal was to process 4 tonnes per hour, yet they are currently achieving between six and seven.”

The first part of the system is a coarse shredder, followed by the removal of iron contamination. The resulting output is then processed through ballistic separators—Ellipticals by Lubo Systems B.V. (a member of the Bollegraaf Group)—to remove small contaminants, such as sand. By means of optical scanning, the material is then separated into different types and, if desired, different colours. A manual check can then be carried out if necessary. The output goes through a baler to be processed into homogenous bales. This material is then further reprocessed using a DRD dry-cleaning system and granulation. Daly Plastics now has all of this technology at its disposal.

The Lubo Elliptical is used to separate 2D materials from 3D materials. The adjustable grilles on the paddles ensure the desired separation size, according to Bollegraaf. They also feature up to 2,500 milimetres of functional width, air support to optimally aid the screening process.

The facility also features the Mistral Film machine from Pellenc ST, which uses near-infrared and vision technology.