Bulk Handling Systems (BHS) has completed the installation of a state-of-the-art 25-ton-per-hour single-stream sorting system at the new material recovery facility (MRF) in Outagamie County, Wis. The MRF is a joint effort of three counties -- Brown, Outagamie and Winnebago -- and was built to process material from the new single-stream program developed by the three counties. The program is expected to generate greater volumes of recyclable materials and divert these materials from landfill.
The three-county single-stream program combines paper with plastic, glass and metal recyclables.
Phil Stecker, director of Solid Waste for Outagamie County, says the new MRF launches a new era of recycling for 500,000 people in more than 60 Brown-Outagamie-Winnebago communities. He says he hopes the new program will reduce complications for residents and encourage greater community participation in recycling.
The Outagamie County MRF incorporates screening, optical and air separation technologies. The BHS single-stream system is designed to maximize the recovery of marketable commodities, yielding minimal residual material and reducing disposal costs. The system was designed, manufactured and installed by BHS, which says in a press release that the system focuses on the reduction of operating costs by optimizing integrated processes to emphasize mechanization and the extraction of recoverable materials on the first "pass." As a result, the products produced by the system are high in quality, the cost to process material is low and the capture rate of high value materials is virtually 100 percent with extremely low residue values, according to BHS.
As reported by the Appleton Post Crescent, the approval of the facility by the Outagamie County Board of Supervisors will allow the cost of the new facility to be shared between Brown, Outagamie and Winnebago Counties, all of which currently participate in a tri-county agreement for solid waste and recycling processing. Moving recycling from the dual-stream system, in which paper is collected separately, to single-stream collection is another way the tri-county agreement best meets the needs of the region, according to the counties of Brown, Outagamie and Winnebago.