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Upgrading can help MRFs and landfills avoid negative bottom lines. By Lynn Tilton Whether it’s a municipal contractor or a single-owner operation of whatever size, all have to deal with similar challenges, including slab wear, aged machinery, operational efficiencies, increases in production demands, and limited space that hampers growth ability. One common challenge is slab wear. Wear rates for correctly poured slabs differ according to traffic volume, pH of dumped materials, vehicle weight, and even climate. When one is dealing with a rough tipping floor, the temptation is to spend time figuring out how to get the funds to replace a worn floor and find a place in which to stuff all the material that arrives when a materials recovery facility (MRF) or transfer station has to shut down to handle the repair time required. An Easier Solution Speaking from 30 years in the industry, Smith continues, “We must first understand the problem. A tipping floor must not only be resistant to impact and abrasion; it must also address chemical attack. Some of the most common chemicals that eat away concrete and topping are blood, urine, and animal fat, as well as many household chemicals. All of these chemical are in solid waste. “To choose the proper topping, they must have a tough, nonrusting aggregate. Emery 400 is a good choice. The topping must be chemically engineered to resist chemical attack. The method of applying the topping to the tipping floor must be determined. In the case of new construction the topping can be applied to the surface of the concrete before the concrete hardens. If an old, worn-out tipping floor is being repaired, the contractor will have to scarify the floor to sound concrete. The topping can be placed over the sound concrete and bonded in place with an acrylic bonding agent. The topping should be water cured for a minimum of three days.” Water curing prevents shrinkage. The topping must be volume stable during this time to prevent delamination. Smith comments, “I have been using the acrylic bonding agent and water curing for over five years and have not had one delamination.” It should be pointed out that one-third to three-fourths of the cost of placing a topping over hardened concrete is the labor. Often it is less costly to replace the old concrete with new concrete and place the topping on the surface of the new concrete while the concrete is plastic. Downtime is often an issue. It does not have to be. You do not have to do all the work at one time. The contractor can do the work in stages, and the transfer station can remain open. Placing a topping three-quarters to 1-inch thick over concrete can increase the useful life of a tipping floor many times beyond that of concrete alone. If the tipping floor is outside, cycles of freezing and thawing may become an issue. The owner can protect himself by requiring freeze/thaw data (ASTM C 666) with a durability factor of at least 90%. Smith concludes, “Learning how to apply L&M’s toppings with an onsite seminar helps ensure the crew is following proper procedures during application.” Basin Disposal in Pasco, WA, is one example of a facelift that helped make life easier for vehicle operators while reducing time on the tipping floor. Says Chuck Anderson, manager, “We’ve been operating this facility since ’93. Our tipping areas include railroad irons. After 13 years, concrete wear brought on by traffic exposed those irons. This caused a lot of bumping. It was like working against the grain.” The operation takes in solid waste from several counties in the southeastern part of the state, with some drivers coming from 60 miles away. The station, which totals 6,000 square feet, has a same-day cycle before segregated waste is hauled 80 miles northwest to the Boardman area. The concrete tipping floor sizes about 6,000 square feet, so at times a rough floor can add traffic problems to dealing with the other challenges transfer station operators have to face. Anderson, who has been dealing with solid waste for 21 years, reports the main concern was to bring the floor back up to grade. “We’re on 10 acres, so we have room to handle quite a bit of waste. But we wanted to keep on schedule getting sorted loads out of here.” The solution proved rather simple. The contractor divided the recoating process into three sections. This allowed the inbound traffic to come in as usual. “We bought Emery 400. Bringing up the grade with that product ranged from three-quarters of an inch to 2.5 inches max. We closed off one section at a time and were still able to keep up the schedule. We have a dry climate, which may help in extending the life of the facelift.” One thing was for sure: Applying the coat beat the time and cost it would have taken to replace and repair the concrete and the railroad irons. Furthermore, applying a top coating not only added life to the existing concrete but, as Anderson points out, the transfer station could keep on keeping on during the process. Another example of success with proper topping application involves the 27th Avenue Transfer Station in Phoenix, AZ, which was opened to the public in the early ’90s. With all the scraping to push material on the 600-foot-by-200-foot tipping floor into floor-level hoppers, wear soon became apparent. So a hard topping was put on within a year from the start of collection, explains Enamul Hoque, president of Hoque & Associates and consulting engineer for the city. “But after 5 to 6 years that hardtop started delaminating and corroding. One reason for this was the nature of the waste. The transfer station recycled cardboard and paper, but the rest of the material was pushed into the hoppers before they were loaded on trucks and sent to MRFs for further sorting. This included a lot of residential metal items. The stress on floor condition was brutal.” The city was determined to continue using hard coatings at the 27th Avenue facility, which handles 3,000 tons per day, six days a week. So in 2001–2002 the city decided to utilize L&M’s coating. As with other transfer stations, one problem is to make necessary changes while minimizing workflow interruptions. “The repair involved 12,000 square feet of the slab, which was done in 12 stages. They blocked off the part of the floor being renewed for a week at a time. This was to allow the new coating to have seven days of wet cure to make sure the hard coating was correctly cured,” Hoque explains. “Since then there has been no delamination.” Perhaps that’s why Phoenix plans to use the same coating on the next project. Dry and Wet Winnings Sebright continues, “For stationary machines, an 18- to 25-year life is common. Users of high-end machines are inclined to have a better maintenance program. Commercial users tend to lease the equipment and rely on their vendors to take care of the equipment. It’s a different type of culture.” But as with other manufacturers, the focus still is on the end user. “You do what you’re good at,” he says. “You can’t cover the whole waterfront.” He then gives the example of sales increasing for low-end balers. “We had a baler dealer in the Midwest [who] put some of the machines with a national store chain before 1985. He continued to sell to that chain. Now we have close to 1,000 machines in use by that store chain.” Sebright adds that the dry waste stationary machine line includes two for corrugated products and one for waste use. The chain bought his company’s balers because they supplied greater compaction, which lessens shipment loads to purchasers of that type of material. But it takes individual management to ensure maximum use of such equipment. In the case of that chain, rather than have individuals in charge of those balers it developed a department to oversee all compacting operations. This ultimately helped the company to more quickly meet ROI considerations. “They became a sophisticated buyer,” Sebright says. “They knew when to step up to larger equipment so that instead of 8 to 9 tons per bale with corrugated products, they reported they had boosted bale weights to 12 to 14 tons.” Wet waste recycling also is becoming more popular for MRFs. Polystyrene is a petroleum-based product that currently sells to recycling manufacturers for 20–35 cents per pound.
While the operating comfort curve is greater than with dry waste balers, it takes just an hour to have an experienced operator know enough to safely start compressing wet waste. “We did a test for a company that thought they were getting brimming-full loads with their compactors. We brought in one of our two-cylinder machines. They took the full container of their existing machine early that morning and put it on our compactor. By midafternoon they ran out of polystyrene and didn’t have the container full.” The customer’s reaction was rather straightforward. In just two years that company has purchased nine machines. High Capacity Harris notes the company makes high-capacity balers, conveyors, and shredders for the recycling industry. Speaking from 27 years’ experience, he comments, “Over the years, MRFs and transfer stations continue to grow in size. The trend has been to reduce the number of facilities and have larger sites that can process more tons per month than in the past. These sites need equipment that can handle scrap material at a higher speed than ever before.” Large or small, many current MRFs and transfer stations have long days, operating with two to three shifts. When peak capacity is met and there’s still more processing in the wings, then it’s time to seriously consider replacing older equipment with newer and faster equipment. Such will help lift up the faces of those dealing with the pressures of the situation. “We’re able to come in and assist them with high-speed balers,” Harris says. “This often allows labor-intensive operations to go from three shifts to just one.” He notes that European utilities and labor are quite high, so Macpresse designs automatic equipment that is fast yet works at lower energy needs. Those savings now are available to US operations. “A national papermill had a recycling site in the Midwest running three shifts with two old two-ram balers,” he says. “They were using 12 people per shift and processing 6,000 tons per month. With the replaced machinery, they were able to go to one shift, yet still have additional capacity so they could buy more paper of a higher grade and increase the profit level.” Harris comments that updating equipment can mean faster processing with machines that are easier to maintain, lower in energy needs, and safer to use. “New computer programs monitor the electric, hydraulic, and mechanical functions. When there’s a problem it tells the manager where to go, whether it’s a fuse or a pressure-relief valve.” Sierra also offers a completely tailored design, full installation, and service assistance. The company’s training programs for most of its equipment make it possible for experienced operators to become fully familiar with the given machine in just four to five days. “Newcomers to the operation then can be taught by the rest of the staff.” When Space Is Tight It’s no surprise that European manufacturers can see a big market for small machines. “Europe has smaller, more compact countries,” says Lisa Bresolin, vice president for Colmar USA Inc. “For example, there is no empty space in Italy.” That’s why the MRFs are more compact in Europe. This gives overseas manufacturers an advantage when it comes to helping such operations in the US boost appearance and profitability.
In Italy, Colmar has been in business for a half-century. Its US division started just five years ago. “We manufacture machines for recycling, including balers, shear balers, and scrap processors. We service scrap yards of all sizes. MRF is a big business, humongous,” she says. Bresolin comments that communication between supplier and user is crucial to success for both sides of the equation. By working together, both parties can determine which size machine is best for the specific operation. “Everything we make for different machines in the United States is bigger than needed for solid waste handlers in Italy and the rest of Europe.” Troy Ellis, owner of Ellis Recycling in Slidell, LA, takes in ferrous and nonferrous metals, cardboard, and newspaper. Because of the small operation, everything is baled and boxed to be shipped to the mills, which are within a 100-mile radius. Ellis began his operation in the early 1990s with secondhand equipment. He took on a Colmar-B5500 baler in 2005 to bale white goods, tin, and autos. He recently purchased a Colmar C605 scrap processor and notes that updating his equipment means less downtime, greater efficiency, and the ability to handle more material. “With the updated equipment we can get 50% more weight into the trailer. It took our crew, [the members] of which take turns working every piece of equipment, about three days to operate these new machines comfortably and safely.” He notes that because of the boom in material value, theft is a problem; so is receiving stolen goods. Ellis solved that with 16 surveillance cameras and a mandatory photo ID for anyone crossing the scales. “If we do buy stolen material, we can easily trace it back to the seller,” he says. “They still try, but this way we can catch them. Onsite theft is near zero.” The sheriff’s department also is pleased with the yard’s cameras. “We had a customer who came back later to say that a necklace, laptop, and diamond ring had been stolen while in our yard. Our recorded photos showed that she wasn’t wearing a ring or a necklace at the time, and that there was no laptop in the car.” The woman was later charged with filing a false report, earning some jail time. Specialty Equipment The two most common reasons used for taking on new equipment acquisitions are, first, to replace high-mileage (old, worn-out) machines, and, second, to improve operational efficiencies with higher production and/or improved end-product equipment. He notes that while such equipment can last 20–40 years, technological advances make replacement crucial to boosting safety, production, and the operation’s bottom line. As with others in the industry, Pfeffer knows that problem solving is essential to the long-term success of any operation. With proper purchasing strategy, the purchaser should be satisfied with the results. Pfeffer emphasizes, “Owners and facility managers really need to do their research, including manufacturer’s history, machine design, machine performance, level of field support, trade-in value of existing equipment, and a thorough check of references. “Users know their needs for today, but they need to analyze where the operation will be in three, five, or 10 years so they don’t have to trade in a machine earlier than planned. They also need to have the manufacturer or distributor assist in layout so the machine can be placed in the best area, including meeting the challenge of dealing with tight spaces.” He recalls one such challenge. “We had a customer with a buy-back center material processing problem. He needed a small baler for a very small warehouse. We worked with a conveyor manufacturer to design a complete system that would fit into this customer’s small facility and thus optimize production. Increasing material handling was a real bottleneck before. The correct layout helped that company boost production by 400%.” Harris’s TransPak compactors have seen a steady market. MSW hauling is very expensive, and operators want to have the most efficient weight onboard to reduce costs. The demand for MSW baling has been strong for the balefill and transportation markets alike. Again, increasing landfill life and reducing transportation costs are major issues.
After noting that first-time buyers represent a good share of their market, Pfeffer says, “We’ve also had a lot of business in shear/baler/logger and baler/logger sales. With the increased base of auto shredders, the demand for improved transportation costs is a real driving force. People looking at new nonferrous balers, for example, tend to be driven by price, but the need should be to concentrate on the density of those bales. Wire savings over just a few years will give them their ROI much quicker than with less expensive balers. Today’s machines have up to a 25% increase in density over older machines.” Another component that can help operations with heavy metal are today’s efficient shears. “The recycle demand for heavy metal can include anything from white goods, plate and structural metal, even large farm combines.” The larger ones (1,000 tons and higher) have been strong over the past few years, according to Pfeffer. “We have seen a number of replacement units to provide for higher production rates.” Shredders are another aspect that has grown in market size. Pfeffer concludes, “The gamut of shredders range from 25 tons per hour in capacity to 350-plus per hour. The smaller machine is good for white goods, miscellaneous scrap, and automobiles, but larger units can handle 4-inch-plus-thickness skeletal plates, for example. Shredding is the most desirable form out there for ferrous metals. Metal buyers are paying premium prices for shred material. “In the future I see more equipment for all types of applications that will really improve their internal efficiencies. The more efficient the machine, the more quickly the ROI.” With the Turn of a Key ... The firm has been in business for 35 years, and Miller has been in the industry for 25 years. “Our mission is to design, engineer, and manufacture turnkey systems to process a variety of materials. This includes single-stream residential material, construction and demolition waste, municipal solid waste, plastic processing systems, and compost production.” Miller emphasizes the key for any manufacturer is in understanding the customer’s material and quality requirements the manufacturer has to produce for its customers. Another is keeping in mind the consequence of running very tough material over the equipment. “Our focus is to make sure our equipment is long-lasting and can handle the abuse of the nature of the material. Also a key is being able to separate different materials, including paper, glass, or debris, when the client is dealing with a single-stream.” The consistent benefit when keeping up with technology is reduced cost of operation. It doesn’t take long to determine the ROI possible when taking on new equipment. “We had a customer in the coastal area of southern California replace older equipment with some of ours. They immediately had a significant decrease in labor. The original equipment was sized fine for the operation; it just didn’t work well. One of our sales reps called on them, and they realized he represented the solution.” Just a year later the change to BHS equipment was in place. Miller continues, “We replaced all of the screening and presort equipment. Specifically, our NewSorter, which includes a polishing screen, a debris roll screen, and eddy-current debris roll screen, was the major key to that user’s facelift.” He reports it took a bit more than three weeks to install the separator, but it took workers just a week to learn how to use the sorter safely and efficiently. “We were with them at startup, training and making sure all of our equipment was meeting the production goal of the operation,” he says. “We made sure that the equipment ran in the way they needed. The sorter handles 20 tons per hour, and the manager is pleased with the rest of the equipment in the system because it was sized to work in harmony with the sorter. There are no bottlenecks in the operation.” Miller adds that, for 2008, one of the company’s technology introductions will include an optical sorter for plastics. “It can distinguish a water bottle from a milk jug and from colored plastics. Each of these things gives off a signal that can be measured in wavelengths. It identifies the material content in the infrared spectrum.” As with all equipment, it’s easier to keep the processing site a lot cleaner—providing it’s part of the maintenance program. Cleanliness promotes safety. Cleanliness helps an older operation look younger. Furthermore, it can help extend the life of all the components of an operation, including tipping floors, processing equipment, and storage area, if one is needed. Journalist and frequent contributor Lynn Tilton specializes in waste and transport issues. MSW - September/October 2007
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