Daily operations at a material recovery facility (MRF) can look like chaos to an outsider, but the actual chaos can be minimized by good planning.
That point was agreed upon by both a MRF operator and a regional recycling coordinator who spoke at a session at the Canadian Waste & Recycling Expo in Toronto in early December.
At the session, hosted by the Ontario Chapter of the Solid Waste Association of North America, Jake Westerhof of Canada Fibers Ltd., Toronto, says the first decision confronted has to be agreement between the municipality, the hauler and the processor between a dual-stream or single-stream collection and processing method.
As a processor and marketer of materials, Westerhof conceded that he personally is “in favor of two-stream” processing, saying that it “provides cleaner materials.”
Canada Fibers, though, is currently in the start-up mode of its first single-stream MRF, which will handle curbside materials collected in Toronto. “We’re excited; apprehensive, but excited,” said Westerhof. The company also operates a dual-stream MRF in Hamilton, Ontario, and a traditional paperstock plant in Toronto.
No matter what style of MRF is chosen, Westerhof said up-front consideration must be given to the traffic management plan for delivery trucks, including the clearance and space allowed for trucks to tip material and to turn around and leave.
Working with haulers to stagger delivery schedules can be a challenge, since most trucks will arrive in late morning or late afternoon, after routes are completed. But trying to stagger deliveries can be one way to prevent material surges that can cause bottlenecks in the plant.
Westerhof also said that having inspectors at the delivery point is crucial, “both for safety and for quality.”
Michael Ursu, the Supervisor of Waste Diversion Operations for the Region of Waterloo, Ontario, has championed the cause of random audits as a way to ensure that haulers serving his region are properly collecting materials collected from Waterloo curbsides.
Ursu urged other municipal coordinators in attendance to “be involved in quality,” and said he has found random audits to be a good method of doing that.
He also said municipalities must be careful how they structure their budgets. “Don’t try to converge fixed operating costs with fluctuating market revenue,” Ursu cautioned. “One is variable and one is fixed,” he remarked, saying that thus they should be categorized in different parts of the budget.
Both Westerhof and Ursu said that haulers with a solid waste background might struggle initially with maximizing recycling quality and revenue. Ursu said haulers see “a truck on the road” as their profit center, while recycling companies who operate MRFs see the production of quality secondary commodities as their revenue stream.
“You don’t want to have adequacy, you want excellence on both sides,” said Westerhof, who said haulers know how to attain excellence in fleet management while traditional recycling companies know how to attain excellence in materials recovery.