The right machine can make bulky waste collection a smaller problem.
Not all trash is small, fitting into a can, cart, or bag. Dead shrubs or tree limbs can be heavy; furniture and appliances wear out, and are discarded. With this year’s digital TV transition, more haulers are seeing various-sized analog televisions at the curb—which, unlike some furniture and white goods, are not snapped up by scroungers before trash pickup.
With a rear-loader and a two-or-more person crew, some of these bulky items are hand-lifted into the truck. Of course, if the municipality designates a “big trash day,” a larger truck or perhaps something like a flatbed might be used to collect some of these items. However, as more areas are utilizing semiautomated or fully automated trucks which require only a driver, collecting bulky trash can prove a problem. Thankfully, manufacturers noticed the dilemma.
Sometimes, It Takes a Crane
“Big” trash days can be a breeze with the aid of a portable crane. Lake Wales, FL–based Petersen Industries manufactures eight such items, called grapple arms, which can be attached to a variety of truck beds (www.petersenind.com).
Tom Ritchie, waste collection manager for the city of Dayton, OH, finds various uses for his Petersen equipment. “We have four of them. We use them for bulk collection—for example, if a resident gets new big furniture and throws out the old, or if they’re tearing out drywall during renovation. We also use them for metal collection—stoves, et cetera.”
Because the cranelike mechanism is attached to the truck, Ritchie’s crews can also reach difficult trash. “We also use them for cleaning up illegal dumpsites. Because the grapple arm can reach below grade, we can clean out ditches where scofflaws have dumped large trash.”
Because the Petersen grapple arm does the heavy lifting, a large human crew isn’t needed. “One is a self-loading truck, requiring only a one-person crew, the driver, who puts out the crane and loads the trash into the bed of truck. We bought our first Petersen truck about five years ago.”
Dayton has assigned routes for these trucks, just like “regular” trash trucks. “We run in a cycle so we hit the whole city in two weeks,” Ritchie says. “Customers can access a calendar on our Web site to find out when the truck will be in their neighborhood. We also do an annual mailing with the schedule. These trucks are reducing personnel injuries, and we also realized a reduction in monthly maintenance costs versus a rear-load packer—not only in personnel, but also they’re cheaper to maintain, while comparative in price.”
Household items aren’t the only things Ritchie picks up with his Petersen grapple trucks. “After September 2008’s Hurricane Ike–related storms, I wouldn’t have traded those trucks for anything. For picking up all those downed trees, they were worth their weight in gold.”
Bill Thompson, solid waste manager for the city of Spartanburg, SC, is also a Petersen enthusiast. “We have five grapple trucks, serving about 10,000 households. Ours are the model RS-3 rear steer, with the grapple hanging behind the truck. We use ours strictly for yardwaste, collecting brush and some leaves. We pick up using a team—the RS-3 and a Ford 750 truck with a utility bay on the back. Using this team correctly, you can just whiz through a neighborhood. To start off, if you have one scoop pile, the RS-3 grabs it, then the Ford in front goes to the second pile. When the RS-3 gets there, it dumps the pile into the Ford, which moves on to the next pile as the RS-3 scoops the second, and so on.
“We move 9,000 tons of yardwaste per year,” Thompson continues. “We’re a ‘Tree City,’ so there are always a lot of leaves. Since we’re in a warmer part of the nation, we collect yardwaste almost year round. The leaf-drop season will change—that happens sometime in November through December; we finish clearing leaves in January. In April people start cleaning their yards for the next growing season.”
Loose leaves are no problem for the grapple truck. “As the landfill only accepts paper yardwaste bags, which are expensive, many people put their leaves in the street. With the rear steer, it’s easier to pick up the pile. You can pick up a dime with the grapple truck—you can reach out and grab loose leaves and not harm the grass underneath. Our drivers can pick up to 30,000 pounds of yardwaste in one day. The Ford truck’s capacity is 30 cubic yards—that’s one pass through the neighborhood. People also put out brush, no longer than six-foot-six in length, separate from leaves, and we pick that up as well. We had an ice storm in 2002, and in the two hours it sleeted it created three years’ worth of waste! With all the downed trees, we brought in our own chipper and made mulch rather than drag it all out to the landfill.”
Thompson doesn’t use the RS-3 units for white goods. “We have gone through a period where the white goods were bringing in money, so people were recycling them for cash; we’d never see them. But if we did, we have old logging type boom trucks, and any time we have a fridge or something to pick up, we use that.”
In rural Flathead County, MT, Larry Bellmore, foreman for the waste division, uses his grapple trucks for just about anything.
“We’ve had two for about eight years. We pick up big and little things with them. How big? Full-size boats bigger than the truck! Rather than go to each home, we operate 12 container sites, each of which contains 20 to 100 garbage cans at one place. People dump appliances, everything. Our boom trucks, with their own 20-yard box, perform the main job of picking up appliances. We will pick up brush with it too—if someone would haul a whole tree there, we’d pick it up. We could pick up a car with it—and have done that. The Petersens don’t require a lot of maintenance; they’re low maintenance, actually. We’re very happy with them. We went to the factory to get the newest one; Petersen has very polite people.”
In Hot Springs, AR, Sanitation Director Bill Burrough runs three Petersen knuckleboom trucks, with a fourth on order.
“We bid them as a complete unit—the body, chassis, and boom. We use them for residential and commercial customers alike. They come in handy for our CAP—Clean Attractive Property—system. Two days a week we pick up miscellaneous items, such as large brush, couches, et cetera. On Wednesdays we pick up metal goods like fridges, which we recycle.”
The 12,000 Hot Springs households get two free large pickups per year, totaling 1 ton. “They’re charged $20 for another ton, $40 thereafter. We schedule two big days a year to get the program going; it’s decreased illegal dumping. Commercial customers call in as well, but from them we mostly get pallets, which we try to reuse; otherwise, we grind them into mulch.”
How have his Petersen machines held up? “Like any other machinery, they go down from time to time, but we are very pleased with the ones we have.”
Double Duty From “The Can”
Sonoma, CA’s Curotto-Can Inc. (thecurottocan.com), which manufactures a commercial gripper as well as its Curotto-Can product (a front-loading hopper that allows collection of several carts, etc., before emptying), knows from personal experience that both items can handle bulky waste. “We own a hauling company in northern California, where we invented our products,” says President John Curotto. “So we’ve tested them in ‘the real world.’ Our commercial gripper can grab white goods, and the Curotto-Can can lift heavier items, such as a couch.”
Curotto’s customer Jason Becker, chief executive officer of Stockbridge, GA’s CLM Sanitation, agrees. “We use the Curotto-Can II, on a front loader; we have 15 of them. We started automating in 2004, and first used automated side loaders. However, if we had large items, we’d send another truck to get them. We enjoyed what automation provided, but with subscription business, we needed to pick up bulky items at the same time as regular trash, to cut costs. The Curotto-Can allowed us to perform more tasks, and a front loader holds more garbage, so that works well. Now we’re purchasing mostly front loaders. With a large couch, sometimes we have to send another guy out there, but using a Curotto-Can with the grabbers on it, it’s been able to grab everything.”
The Curotto-Can even saves Becker paperwork. “With traditional ASL, we have to send literature to customers about how to deal with bulky waste, and they have to contact us for a pickup. When we went with Curotto-Can on a front-loader, there’s no change in service, because it picks up everything at once. The driver can throw yardwaste bags into the Curotto-Can, as well as bundled limbs. And, because the Curotto-Can is in front of the cab, the truck can swing around obstacles. There’s no problem using it in any environment.”
Keeping Waste From Becoming Bulky
Waste piles up, and open-top containers can’t always handle the quantity of waste without frequent pickups. But what if the container were enclosed and had a built-in ram that compacts the waste? This means more trash can go into the containers—and they have to be picked up fewer times.
One Plus Corp (www.onepluscorp.com) of Northbrook, IL, manufactures Waste Edge Waste Compactor Monitor Systems. These monitor the fullness level of the waste compactor container and automatically contact the hauler only when the container is full, decreasing expense and problems for both the end user and the waste hauler.
Compactors are only as good as the systems that monitor and report their fullness levels. Many haulers and their customers use manual or visual means to determine when compactor containers are actually full and ready for pickup. Using dock employees or unreliable gauges to determine when a pickup should be made amounts to guesswork. The Waste Edge Monitoring System, which is easy-to-install on new and existing compactors, brings waste removal and hauling to a new productive and profitable level. Waste compactor containers are accurately monitored for fullness and can automatically request pickups at the optimum time; no more expensive guesswork.
The work- and cost-savings benefit the hauler, as well. Monitors allow haulers to effectively schedule manpower and equipment to help reduce overtime, weekend pulls, and other excess wage costs. Truck fleets can be used to maximum effectiveness, with no more overload fines; plus, a reduction in pick-ups means fewer fuel emissions. Haulers can set the “full” container level for optimum and consistent disposal margins, then the Waste Edge automatically reports optimum pickup information to the hauler via e-mail or fax. In addition, compactor activity can be viewed on the Internet, allowing a variety of management reports for record keeping and/or billing.
More Power + Less Time = More Jobs
For bulky trash hauling, one could say “less is more,” as jobs that can be accomplished in less time allow the firm to take on more revenue-generating work. However, when it comes to shortening the amount of time on those jobs, “more is more.” More power—hydraulics over elbow grease—is what’s needed.
West Palm Beach, FL’s J. Emery Bobcat is a case in point. As the name states, the firm uses Bobcats in its line of work, but for larger jobs, President Jim Faris finds grapple trucks gets the job done—and more of them.
“I own a Bobcat service, but we also collect construction debris,” Faris explains. “I clean out construction dumpsters, which building crews just use as bins, not as transfer containers, because we can’t transfer in this state. In any case, where my competition, using dump trucks, end loaders, and at least a two-man crew, was hauling 15 yards of trash at a time—just me, with my grapple truck and its huge capacity, was hauling 40 yards. Less equipment, fuel, and labor; fewer trips to the landfill—it’s a no-brainer.”
Faris uses loaders made by Serco (www.sercoloaders.com), which were configured by and purchased from Scaffidi Commercial Trucks (www.scaffidi.com) in Stevens Point, WI.
“If you’re going to buy a loader, get someone who knows something; Scaffidi knows what they’re doing,” Faris advises. “Years ago, I went up there and told Scaffidi how to build these for me and helped design the PTO system for them.
“I give them specs for one of two wheelbases: one for tree debris, which usually has a longer box, and one for construction debris, which is heavier and shorter.
“I want a Mack truck set up for me, and as Scaffidi is also a Mack dealer, the process is simple. They adapt each truck for my needs. Serco cranes are made for trucks; others refit something to a trailer.”
Long used in the logging industry, Serco knuckleboom loaders have easily found a niche in the trash business. Through years of experience, the firm has learned which grapple unit works with which size of truck chassis.
“If you’re going to have a truck like this, you have to understand the truck’s wheelbase,” Faris explains. “It has to be set up correctly, or else [the weight and reach of] the grapple arm will flip the trucks.”
He knows whereof he speaks: “Years ago, I did that once with another rig. I had the wrong kind of grapple arm on a truck, and the truck ended up flipped into a culvert. I know how to do it now; Serco knows what it’s doing; and Scaffidi has the most understanding of what’s going on. During my career, I’ve used all the cranes, and there’s only one to buy: Serco loaders.”
Trucks such as Faris’s are an interesting mix of strength and light weight. “The huge BeauRoc box of the truck is 4,000-pounds lighter than others of its kind, because it’s made from Swedish Hardox steel, which is stronger and resists dents. It’s an absolute must. Because the box weighs less, I’m able to carry more of a load while staying under road load limits.”
Lifting strength and box capacity aren’t the rigs’ only benefits; the Serco’s agility allows Faris to reach into tight spaces. “Say someone wants to redo her landscaping. Other crews will have to drive over the lawn, the pavers, et cetera, tearing stuff up with their equipment. With the Serco arm, I can park in the street, reach over the sidewalk, and pull the trees or shrubs—with a one-man crew.
“I get more jobs because I’m more efficient,” he goes on. “One project was on a busy six-lane street separated by a median in which the established landscaping was blocking drivers’ views. I met with a tree guy, an arborist consultant. He said, ‘You have two weeks to get this done. Get an excavator, end loaders, laborers.’ I said, ‘That’s five grand a day! Let me show you what I can do in an hour with my rig.’ With the grapple arm, I pulled up the full-grown palm trees and loaded them into trucks while compressing the load, also with the grapple arm. I didn’t need all that equipment he suggested, and the project was completed in two-and-a-half days, at a smaller cost, and with less time blocking traffic.
“Another example of how I’m more efficient,” he goes on. “Let’s say a tree guy who removes and carts away trees and brush owns a chipper. To fill a 50-yard body, it takes 250 to 400 trees to fill up the body and all day to run them through the chipper. At that rate, it almost doesn’t pay to have the chipper and a four-man crew. Why not just take the tree debris the way it is—where it’s recycled, they’ll chip it. With my larger truck box, I can take the debris, each in one piece, and pay just one dump fee. We’ve loaded a hundred 100-yard trailers in one day with a grapple truck. During hurricane season, you can’t beat it. After the 2008 hurricanes, our trucks never shut off; we loaded 87,000 yards out of Boca Raton in a week.”
Faris highly recommends Serco loaders and Scaffidi. “16 years ago, I was one of the first here to use these rigs. Local guys ask me, ‘Why buy from a Wisconsin firm? What about parts?’ I say I don’t usually need parts. If anyone wants to buy a grapple truck, just talk to me for an hour; I’ll convince them. I’ve ‘sold’ a lot of Scaffidi’s trucks for them. I have four in my fleet, and there’s no competing with us now.”
Compacting at the Curb
One way to handle bulky trash is to use a large refuse truck with strong compaction. Cedar Falls, IA’s Wayne Engineering (www.wayneusa.com), known for its small refuse bodies, also offers two full-size models ideal for tackling bulky waste.
In Delaware County, OK, three Wayne Titan front loaders handle everything from municipal waste to construction-and-demolition (C&D) waste. Elsewhere in the state, Wayne Phoenix rear loaders pack the waste so effectively it would hardly seem bulky.
Extra-bulky pickups in Delaware County need to be scheduled with the Titan front-loader operator, or customers can drop off items at the transfer station.
The county also has three convenience centers and a system of 8-yard containers at strategic sites across the county no more than five miles apart for rural dropoffs. In addition to the front loaders servicing rural routes seven days a week and sometimes picking up scheduled couches, chairs and other bulk, the Titans also make regular runs to the dropoff sites.
“Each truck travels about 136 miles a day, and they move somewhere in the neighborhood of about 23 tons apiece,” says Larry Burrow, general manager at Delaware County Solid Waste. “Couches, chairs, water heaters, and more are lifted by the front-loader arms into the hopper,” he boasts.
In addition, the Titan collects and compacts non-mainstream items with ease, says Burrow: “Basically, a lot of times we have people who put illegal items in the dropoff: C&D, two-by-fours, sheet rock, shingles—and the Titan processes it and doesn’t have a problem with it.”
Speaking from 20 years of experience in the waste business, Burrow says, “Economically speaking, dollar-for-dollar, the Titan is a better truck and is much lower maintenance than previous trucks we’ve had. One thing we appreciate is Wayne’s exemplary customer service.”
Marc Herringshaw, owner of Muskogee, OK’s Herringshaw Waste Management, emphasizes that, for bulky trash, compaction is key.
“The higher the compaction, the less you pay at the landfill, if you’re paying by volume” Herringshaw says. Herringshaw Waste Management operates two Wayne Phoenix rear loaders and says, “These are really high-compaction trucks, and we are really happy with them.”
Herringshaw runs the two rear loaders each at least four 10-hour days a week. Up to 25% of that time is spent collecting bulky trash. The company has container tippers and 1.5-, 2-, and 3-yard containers that can attach to the back of the truck for particularly bulky collections. “We have two Phoenix packers now. They run at least four 10-hour days dumping yard-and-a-half, 2-yard, and 3-yard containers and picking up rural and residential trash. Some of the commercial customers have large containers with large items inside. Up to 25% of the trash picked up could be bulky. These are really high-compaction trucks, and we are really happy with them.”
He continues, “Our Wayne Phoenix packers are also equipped with container kicker bars and hydraulic winches, which are helpful in handling bulky items. We normally make people schedule bulky pickups. We try to get people to schedule a pickup for a large quantity of tree limbs, a whole lot of extra trash from a holiday, or large boxes from moving in, for example, so that we can at least plan for it. But as long as trash fits within the container, it just gets dumped.
“Higher compaction means paying less at the landfill if you’re paying by volume. More weight packed on for a given volume translates to significantly reduced landfill bills.
“We have been very happy with the high compaction and efficiency of our Wayne Phoenix packers. We have two. In fact one of them was one of the first ones off the line.”