Grand Central Recycling Updates Processing Line

Grand Central Recycling and Transfer, a recycling and waste management firm headquartered in City of Industry, Calif., has installed a new Bollegraaf system that will allow it to switch to a single processing line and sort a variety of material streams.

Van Dyk Recycling Solutions, the distributor of the Bollegraaf system in North America, says it has installed a system that uses sophisticated technology to allow the same line to switch between different waste streams. The new plant can process and sort residential single-stream, dirty and dry commercial waste and multifamily municipal solid waste on a single processing line, the company says. “It is a scalable alternative for the recyclers who do not have the capital, volume or needs for a multiple line mega-MRF (material recovery faciltiy),” says Wilfred Poiesz, Van Dyk Recycling Solutions western vice president.

“For a growing private hauling company like us, this unique multimaterial system provides great opportunities. We now can process most waste streams that we currently collect on our trucks and become less dependent on the rising cost of landfill disposal fees,” says Dave Perez, CEO of Grand Central.

Grand Central has reported that its goal is to maximize diversion rates by designing a system that could replace the existing manual sorting operation, increase throughput and act as an extension to its existing transfer station. The new plant uses additional automation to allow the processing of higher volumes of materials without increasing labor costs. In addition, the MRF has been designed to dig deeper into Grand Central’s incoming waste streams and reduce disposal costs.

The Van Dyk system can process 600 to 700 tons per day of any type of incoming material on the same processing line, the company says. “The fact that Van Dyk Recycling Solutions could think outside the box allowed them to formulate the most competitively priced proposal as well as the best use of space and people,” says Pete Perez, general manager of GCR.

GCR’s MRF uses air-based technology from Bollegraaf and Walair as well as sensor-based sorting technology from Titech.

“The use and flexibility of sensor and air-based sorting technologies allows Grand Central to immediately adjust and reset the line for different material streams. The air and optical sensor technology also limits maintenance and cleaning associated with traditional MRFs,” says Jeff Duhamel, a consultant at Waste Systems Technology Inc.

“It was clear that conventional technology would be problematic for this material. Bollegraaf came up with a solution that works without extensive maintenance and cleaning requirements. Their advanced process enables GCR to significantly enhance the depth of diversion, raise recovery rates and minimize O&M costs,” Duhamel adds.

Pete Perez adds, “Our new system enables us to reclaim considerable amounts of previously untouched recyclables, while the size reduction and mechanical separation components help to prepare and protect our sorting staff. Titech sensor-based sorting technology enables us to adjust and monitor our output quality to meet the strict ‘Green Fence’ imposed quality standards.”

The MRF initially sorts material by size and density into separate streams:

• Large items for manual sorting of wood, metals, old corrugated containers and film; 
• High-density products, such as glass, metals, electronic scrap, phonebooks, large organics, wood and other inerts; 
• Medium-density products, such as containers, magazines, small wood and fabrics; 
• Low-density products, such as paper and films; and
• Each waste stream is refined using Titech sensor based sorting and manual quality control to prepare clean materials for market.

Close cooperation between GCR operations and system integrator Van Dyk Recycling Solutions has resulted in various “recipes” for processing the different waste streams from different geographic areas or accounts, the companies say. Currently, four separate sorting modes and many pr-programmed sensor based sorting tasks are used to process single stream, mixed commercial, multifamily municipal solid waste and C&D.