SWANA recognizes two MRFs designed by BHS

Eugene, Oregon-based Bulk Handling Systems (BHS) has announced that its customers are recipients of 2017 Excellence Awards from the Silver Spring, Maryland-based Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) for the best recycling systems built in North America.

BHS says MRFs systems it designed, manufactured and installed in the United States, with one in California and the other in Florida received the awards. GreenWaste Recovery’s single-stream materials recovery facility (MRF) in San Jose, California, was named the Gold Award recipient by SWANA. The Silver Award went to the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority (ECUA) for the agency’s 25-tons-per-hour (tph) single-stream MRF in Pensacola, Florida.

Increased demand to process both commercial and residential single-stream products with increasing purity requirements prompted GreenWaste to add the company’s newest recycling system, says BHS. Designed to process 35 tph, the plant in 2017 averaged more than 50 tph with what BHS calls “exceptional process uptime.”

According to the SWANA award application, “The system has exceeded all expectations, including throughput, recovery, purity and uptime. GreenWaste companies maximize value and diversion of the entire waste stream, processing C&D material and organics through anaerobic digestion (AD) and composting, mixed materials and single-stream. This single-stream MRF, GreenWaste’s newest and highest performing system, has redefined excellence. Featuring state-of-the-art technology, it is recovering 98 percent of recyclables while operating at 143 percent of its designed capacity.”

This is the second SWANA Gold Award for GreenWaste, having won the same award in 2008 for the company’s 40-tph mixed waste MRF, also built by BHS. The company has hired BHS to provide a major overhaul of that facility in 2018. The new system will be designed to double throughput and includes new technology to increase recovery and quality, including NRT and Max-AI technology for automated container sorting.

The ECUA partnered with Escambia County to go from planning to completion of its $10.7 million project in 18 months. The undertaking included construction of a 53,460-square-foot building and a single-stream recycling system. The partnership’s approach featured a process in which, according to the application, “the equipment, site development and operations schedules were compressed by overlapping the design, permitting, procurement, negotiations and construction.”

According to the ECUA, the MRF, operated by BHS subsidiary Zero Waste Operations, is performing at a high level and exceeding financial targets. “The MRF is generating revenue that exceeds expectations and costs have been below the approved budget," the award application states. “The operational and economic performance of the MRF has exceeded the planned expectations.”

“We truly believe that our customers’ success is our success,” says BHS CEO Steve Miller. “We’re proud that our systems are exceeding expectations and providing positive financial results for our customers. GreenWaste and the ECUA are organizations that offer exemplary recycling programs, and it’s exciting for us to see them awarded for excellence by their peers.”

BHS customers Zanker Recycling and Athens Services won the SWANA Gold and Silver Excellence Awards in 2016.