Upstate Shredding LLC, Owego, N.Y., is in the final stages of completing a $25 million upgrade to its auto shredding plant. “Industry experts tell us that there are few, if any, other plants in the world that have achieved our level of technical sophistication in the maximum recovery of metals from the waste stream and in environmental responsibility,” says Adam Weitsman, company president.
Upstate, which bills itself as New York State’s largest scrap metal processor and one of the largest privately held processors on the East Coast, states in a news release that several upgrades have been undertaken at the plant.
These include enclosing the 200,000-square-foot Owego complex and boosting its capacity so it can handle an anticipated 2009 scrap production for all metal grades of approximately 700,000 tons.
By walling and roofing the facility, installing a new storm sewer system and an on-site water treatment plant, the goal of Upstate Shredding is to exceed the standards of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and become the first “green” plant of its type in the state, says the company.
“At a time when many businesses are retrenching, we are investing in the future,” says Weitsman. “This new technology gives us a competitive advantage that is already helping to grow our business despite the economy.”
Inside the plant, which shreds autos, white goods and other types of scrap metal, the company has been making additions and upgrades to its equipment, including:
· A 10,000 hp Riverside Engineering 122-inch Mega Shredder. The machine can shred complete automobiles, trucks and motor blocks at the rate of 450 tons per hour, says Upstate. It is equipped electronics such as cruise-control and automatic feed adjustments designed to increase productivity and reduce energy consumption. Weighing more than 500 tons, the new machine nearly doubles Upstate’s Owego production capacity.
· A Polishing Drum Magnet System designed to automatically remove electric motors containing copper armatures from vehicles and to eliminate the need to hand-pick motors from conveyor belts.
· Four Dynamic Ferrous Metal Separation System that use eddy current technology to segregate nonferrous metals like aluminum, copper and brass from ferrous metals.
· A Dual-Energy X-Ray Separator System, designed to identify metal particles by atomic density and to segregate aluminum from heavier metals, such as zinc, copper and brass.
· Six Sand-jet Dry Heavy Media Plants, described as a new technology designed to remove copper from aluminum.
· Optic Color Sorters designed to separate yellow metals from red metals. Each unit uses several ultra high-speed, high-resolution video cameras. Images of metals traveling on a conveyor belt go to a computer that analyzes metals by shape and color to trigger automatic separation.
· An $8 million dollar Wire Recovery System, a new method to address the recovery of copper wire encased in plastic insulation. The technology is designed to recover small-diameter wires found in autos and appliances using inductive metal detection combined with near-infrared scanning to remove wires from the residue stream, separate insulation from copper and granulate copper into a pure commodity.
“Our next goal is to recover glass and plastic as soon as we can find the technology to do it efficiently,” says Weitsman. “Our corporate mission is to extract the last ounce of value from the materials we process, not only to keep material out landfills, but also to help conserve natural resources.”
Upstate and its sister company Ben Weitsman & Son have scrap operations in Owego, Binghamton and Ithaca, N.Y. Upstate also is building a new facility in Syracuse and planning another in Scranton, Pa., both set to open in 2010.
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