Changes in equipment for wastestream treatment help communities and companies beter deal with whatever's involved.

By Joseph Lynn Tilton

There was a time when metal troubled Delaware County, NY's Department of Public Works' construction-and-demolition (C&D) operation. But thanks to acquiring a new machine, problems with metal greatly have been reduced, processing of the wastestream has increased, and the life of the county's landfill nearly has tripled. Both utilization and compaction are increasing nationally, especially where operators - whether public or private - are taking on new technology to help with these tasks. Furthermore, they're either reducing the cost of operation or boosting profitability because they're finding more and more markets for products that used to end up in the landfill.

Speaking from her office in Delhi, NY, Susan McIntyre, solid waste coordinator for Delaware County, admits that despite serving 19 towns and 11 villages, the facility is relatively small. "We handle 100 tons per day of MSW and also accept construction-and-demolition waste and recyclables in our full-service material-receiving operation. Overall we're taking in 200 tons per day."

McIntyre oversees a staff of 15, which includes transfer station drivers, site operators, and a recycling crew. Regarding what recent changes Delaware County has made in its operation, she relates, "Last February [2003] we purchased a Komptech C&D Terminator 5000F from Norton Environmental Equipment. It shreds C&D like a bandit! We do not run it at full capacity because 50% to 75% is adequate for handling our waste flow." She emphasizes that the county chose the particular model because it's highly metal-tolerant.

"We have a lot of metal with our C&D despite a long-standing recycling program. The problem is there is so much metal imbedded into various debris, which includes furniture, mattresses, metal bedding, et cetera. This is the first shredder that we've purchased because we relied on leased shredders before buying this one."

McIntyre adds that the leased units were unable to handle the waste flow as efficiently as the new one can in either volume or type of material. She says it took the machine operator less than a week to become familiar with the machine. "It's a simple machine to operate. The biggest challenge is how you feed it. That's left up to the operator. We made the decision early on that we only wanted one or two persons on that machine to preserve its condition. If you swap out operators, you're asking for higher maintenance."

She explains that this machine reduces material to 6-inch-minus as did prior units and that screening is not part of the operation. "We might get into screening. Right now our valuable goal is to simply reduce the size of the waste before we put it in our own landfill, which is just 500 feet from the plant."

Delaware County also installed a new two-ram, auto-tie baler in its material recovery facility (MRF) two years ago. There MRF staff use an Excel 2R63 to bale corrugated plastics, cans, and mixed paper. They then sell the products. "Recycling these postconsumer wastes saves us two months' capacity per year and provides the county with a source of some $275,000 a year in what used to be landfill products."

Now the county is constructing a composting facility, which it expects will be in operation by summer 2004. "We anticipate that all of this effort will give us 30 to 45 years of remaining life of this property instead of 10 to 15 years. We're going to market that compost but aren't in position to release any anticipated figures at this time."

Although the name "Terminator" sounds logical for the kind of work it does, Marc Labry, national sales manager for Komptech Farwich North America Inc., admits that despite its introduction to the market 10 years ago, the product deliberately was named after a role played by California's current governor. "That machine is made in Gratz, Austria, where Arnold [Schwarzenegger] is famous. Komptech Farwick North America is the exclusive rep for a line of environmental equipment from shredders to trommel screens, windrow turners, and even an air separator, which is known as the Hurricane."

He reports that the screens offered are all quick-change drums. "With most trommel screens, you change the segment, but with ours you change the entire drum. So instead of four to eight hours [required] to change standard screens, a drum can be changed in just 30 minutes." Plus, working with an auger system instead of raised paddles to help lift and separate materials largely eliminates the problem with spiking.

In terms of what's new to his company, Labry reports, "This past August [2003], we came out with a line of finger screens and star screens. Drums are more for composted material, whereas finger and star [screens] work better in leaf situations and some C&D applications, such as dry wall."

He adds that his company also has high-torque, low-speed shredders and that improvements for 2004 will include its first series of 800- to 1,000-hp Terminators, which will be capable of 100 tph. regardless of the type of waste, including concrete chunks, white goods, rebar, tires, auto parts, and woodwaste. "The 4-foot-diameter drum turns at 30 rpm and comes with 30 to 45 triple-sided teeth so the operator can turn each tooth three times to get fresh cutting edges. This reduces changing teeth from a weekly operation to [a monthly one]." With an air gun, it takes but two hours to change all of the teeth.

In addition, slow speed means reduced noise levels and better control of the material being reduced. "The excavator or loader is louder than the machine. And you don't have pieces and parts flying out of the hopper, whereas high speed can throw items 50 yards away."

Regarding the Hurricane, Labry comments, "We have eight units in California alone because that state is doing something about light plastic, which is not biodegradable. It needs to be taken out of the wastestream rather than sent to the landfill. EPA [the Environmental Protection Agency] is clamping down on this, so waste collection organizations need to do something about light plastic. This machine takes light-faction plastic, rocks, stones, and ferrous metals out of the overs of the compost. It fits beneath the overs belt of the primary screen and cleans the overs, leaving the operator with a bioproduct." It also can be used to clean up a plastic-laden site. All of this helps recyclers not only reduce their risk of citation by EPA but also broaden their potential markets.

In 1995 the City of Abilene, TX (population 115,000), began setting up drop-off points in various neighborhoods to collect common recyclables, including glass. A local recycler took that glass and trucked it 400 mi. to his operation. "But every time he would get a contaminated load, it would be rejected," reports Bill Brock, assistant manager for the city's solid waste services division. "Then it would cost us a whole bunch of numbers to use somebody else's landfill. But after [the Texas Department of Transportation] did a 1-mile road project that utilized 450,000 pounds of glass in the sub-base, we started collecting glass in earnest."

Brock says the city has 10 sites throughout the community, which means every citizen is within 2 mi. of a collection point. The only requirements are that the containers be clean, that the metal and plastics be placed in other containers, and that the containers be separated by color. "The pulverizer takes care of any attached paper. We ask the citizens to separate by colors just in case we have a market develop for a particular color. Our best color market is for brown glass that can be used for sand traps and top dressing on greens in golf courses.

"Whether it's wet or dry, brown glass makes the same kind of divot when the ball drops on it. This evens up the play." Brown glass also makes a terrific water filter. Brock reports that when the sand filter using glass as the medium is back-flushed, more sediment is removed in a shorter period of time.

He reports that the city uses an Andela Pulverizer Model GP-07 and the pulverized glass is stored in an open area as other fill is stored. Using 10% commingled glass in the road sub-base does not affect stability. The city lays the flex base down and then runs a grader over it. Glass is dumped over top of the flex base, and then the material is mixed. Using glass doesn't change the road-building procedures that much, so learning how to do it does not take that long. "We have about 20 miles of roadway with glass in it, as well as numerous parking lots that would equal four football fields."

While most of the glass is used on roadways, they also sell it to contractors for private use. "We're trying to develop relationships with people who make decorative ponds. We're experimenting with using glass as the medium to set the plants in because it won't cloud the water. The plants get the nutrients from the water and not from the surrounding soil." Small backyard ponds are popular in this city, which gets less than 10 in./yr. of rain.

Brock adds that the city's collection points contribute 800 tons of its overall recycling program, with glass accounting for 200 tons of that. Other recyclables going through the plant include 1,000 tons of cardboard, 500 tons of paper, and 22 tons of plastic. "We sell recyclables to local recyclers. This diversion has an effect on the landfill costs. The city also makes 15,000 tons of mulch a year." He emphasizes, "We chip all of the organic material we can get."

Looking to the future, Brock says recycling will continue to grow. Abilene is becoming more of a hub for surrounding communities. "They want to offer recycling programs to their communities but don't have the size to be profitable. Right now we're taking in waste [from] up to 89 miles [away], with 12 communities involved. We take the recyclables at net cost, and we use the little money we get from our products to enhance our system.

"Think outside the bottle. People have to work together to solve lots of problems, especially with small communities that just don't have the resources to go it alone."

Demolition of concrete

Recycled gypsum board

Using glass for water filtration on construction of a bridge

When most people hear of recycled glass aggregate, they assume it requires special handling. After all, broken glass must be sharp. David Hula, director of sales and marketing for Andela Products in Richfield Springs, NY, however, says this is not so. "Our system reduces glass and many other fragile products to user-friendly­sized glass sand and three-eighths-inch material, which has no sharp edges.

"We build all types of glass recycling equipment. Our customers range from small municipalities to large commercial operators. We build units that pulverize all types of glass. Whether bottles, CRTs [cathode ray tubes], or even windshields, if it's got glass, we've got it covered." Andela is especially excited right now about its gypsum board and CRT recycling units because of the anticipated increase in regulatory pressure to recycle these materials. "Plus, as landfills fill up domestically, it will become imperative that everything recyclable is kept out of the wastestream. If glass, for example, is disposed of in a landfill, 100 years from now that glass still will be there. Our mission is to come in between the pickup point and the landfill and process it into a usable product. Our machines operate from 1 to 75 horsepower, depending on system requirements, and can produce between 1 and 20 tons per hour of recyclable, salable material."

Hula expects CRT monitors to become one of the recycling industry's biggest market segments because of the lead they contain. Since lead is a hazardous material, the need to keep it out of the landfill is obvious. "You have to pull out the glass, metals, and plastics and then find a safe market [in which] to reuse the glass. We have a process that separates all of the components of a CRT monitor. This makes it possible to cost-effectively sell the respected products."

Hula also sees glass sand breaking into the water filtration market because of its excellent filtration qualities. "It's being used on construction sites already, but there are many other water filtration applications. Contractors use water guns and grinders to pulverize concrete, and this water cannot be discharged directly into streams. The water is processed through a glass-sand filter, which filters out the concrete particles."

Gypsum board is another material that will see a tremendous increase in recycling. "Right now it's being put into landfills and taking up valuable space. With gypsum board you have the potential for strong sulfuric odors once it gets wet. This can cause residents [living] around landfills to complain. With new construction and remodeling on the upsurge, there will be even more gypsum board to recycle. This will certainly become a new marketplace."

For glass recycling systems, Hula emphasizes that the return on investment will depend on what costs already are being incurred. "For example, take a community that is spending $50 per ton in tipping fees to the landfill for taking its glass, of which it produces 600 tons per year. It is spending $30,000 just for tipping fees. That community could put in our GP-05 system, and it [would pay] for itself in two years.

"When it comes to recycling, there's a lot going on. It's an exciting time to be in this particular industry."

While the right equipment is essential to success, so is the cooperation and involvement of city residents. The City of Harrisonburg, VA (population 40,000), for example, has gotten landfill waste hauling down to just 50% of what it used to be. "We are currently rebuilding our old waste-energy incinerator, increasing our capacity from 100 to 200 tons per day," explains Charlie Honaker, solid waste superintendent for Harrisonburg. "We'll take in outside waste from the surrounding areas if they haul it in."

The city purchased a Terminator 500 a year ago and just now is putting in a tipping floor. Describes Honaker, "We didn't have either the machine or the floor before because we just burned everything that came in. Now we pick up refuse that's been curbside, sorted burnable and nonburnable. Nonburnables go to Rockingham County Landfill where they process it before they put anything into their landfill.

"We get a pretty good burn out of the products we receive and get it down to 17% by volume. The heat is used for the central heating and cooling facility for James Madison University, which has about 17,000 people in two sections of campus on both sides of I-81."

Honaker says Harrisonburg's voluntary curbside recycling program has an impressive 85% participation. It includes plastics, aluminum cans, all three colors of glass, newspaper, cardboard, office paper and magazines, batteries, tires, white goods, and yard debris, all of which are picked up on a weekly basis.

Old corrugated cardboad sort screen (left) and system (right)

When it comes to a private program, one of the more outstanding examples is Corrugated Services LP in Forney, TX. Established in 1974, the firm produces about 800 tpd of linerboard and medium, which is sold primarily to independent box manufacturers. With $100 million in revenue and 238 employees (see sidebar), the company is the largest independent producer of recycled containerboard in the United States.

Marty Rusk, vice president of fiber supply, explains that his part of the operation includes two Forney Paper Mills that recycle 100% scrap paper. "We are the largest consumer of corrugated and mixed paper in the state of Texas. We buy truckloads of baled corrugated, mixed paper, and roll cores." About 70% of that scrap fiber is generated and sourced in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area from industrial accounts, printers, office buildings and other recycling facilities, with 97% of all materials coming from less than 250 mi. away. Furthermore, the company has been making 100% recycled container board since it began.

Its other products include precoated liners, functional and specialty coatings, linerboard, corrugated medium, and single-face rolled corrugated paper.

All in all, this manufacturer is able to supply its market with a thorough line of paper products, all from recycled sources. In other words, Corrugated Services is making money from what used to be 100% incinerated - unless the municipality didn't have an incinerator. That's an extra $100 million added to the economy by one company alone.

Rusk points out that an essential element to the company's success is the mechanical sorting equipment it utilizes in its operations. One example is the OCC Separator, which the company purchased from Bulk Handling Systems in Eugene, OR.

"It mechanically separates corrugated containers from mixed industrial, commercial, and institutional fiber material," says Sean Austin, sales manager. He explains that the mixed fiber is fed into the material stream as it conveys over the screening area. The screening action releases the smaller fiber and contaminants through the screening surface and conveys the clean OCC across the screen. "The unique compound disc configuration reduces the loss of smaller OCC through the screen, which results in higher recovery rates."

Austin reports that the single-stream or single-pass collection of curbside recyclables rapidly is gaining popularity throughout the US because of the labor savings involved. Now, instead of having to manually sort such products, processing facilities can separate the fiber from the mixed containers mechanically. "This allows large volumes of mixed recyclables to be processed quickly and efficiently."

He also reports that the firm has developed other screens for downstream use of paper waste to further define and refine the various paper waste products for more efficient utilization and removal of small contaminants. "The Debris Roll Screen can also be designed for processing municipal solid waste, greenwaste, C&D, single-stream recyclables, commercial/industrial fiber streams, curbside recyclables, tire shreds, and numerous other applications."

There was a time when a waste treatment facility relied on hammermills and hog presses for reducing waste volume. Although those technologies still are utilized in communities, the trend is to replace them with shredders and grinders. Vikki Van Dam, inside sales coordinator with WEIMA America in Ft. Mill, SC, says, "Low-speed, low-rpm shredders and grinders are the future in waste reduction equipment. An advantage of these units over hammermill types is that they require less horsepower, therefore reducing electrical costs and producing considerably less noise. The WEIMA shredders incorporate a patented V-Rotor system that allows the knives on the rotor to actually cut the material with a precise cutting action. This, in combination with different screen sizes, produces a uniform chip mix, which customers can specify.

"The company can decide whether to use the machine for simply breaking down the material to save on Dumpster costs and landfill costs or to process the material as a resalable product. For example, in the wood market, companies can sell their chips for such things as animal bedding or landscape mulch. In the plastic market, shredders are used to break down the product in order to reprocess and use [it] again."

Van Dam also explains that another way of compacting material is to use a briquetting press. The pressure produces circular briquettes out of a combination of materials that include wood chips, shavings, sawdust, paper, polystyrene, and more. Companies now are developing total recycling processes within their own plants.

New with WEIMA America is its entry into the plastic and recycling markets with a new fiber rotor system designed to handle long, skinny fibrous material yet eliminate rotor wrapping woes. Also introduced this year at the National Plastics Exposition in Chicago, IL, was a centralized granulator system called CentriCut. "We understand there are new applications all the time," Van Dam comments.

"The size-reduction industry as a whole is going to continue to grow. Companies and individuals are seeing the benefits of recycling and finding ways to help reduce their costs. In the future, there will be more pressure from local and national governments to recycle waste materials. The more we learn about it now, the easier it will be to deal with changes that will come as even more products come into the recycling system."

Crocodile 25 loaded by frontloader with press-down device

WL 18 Jumbo System developed for outdoor use

Processing equipment is vital to the efficiency of an operation and so is how the waste is handled while on the tipping floor awaiting its turn for processing. A good example is Medina County Processing Facility in Seville, OH, which handles 500­600 tpd. While the operation relies strongly on machines from Norton Environmental Equipment for processing that equipment, it also relies strongly on workers who can handle the repetition involved in this type of work. "It's all general waste, with a majority of that residential," says Gary Kaufmann, plant manager. "Some of it is commercial, but there's no significant industrial waste."

Kaufmann adds that all of the material is dumped onto the tipping floor, and larger recyclables are sorted out. "We sort paper, cardboard, plastic, mixed paper, and aluminum, as well as white goods and steel products. We have 93 workers on the site and pretty much work around the clock. This keeps the receiving floor clear." That floor can handle four waste collection vehicles at a time. From there, the presorted waste is pushed into the processing stream by a front-end loader with a 3-yd. bucket.

He explains that each municipality served by the county facility contracts with a collection agency, which brings the matter to the site. "There are five different collection agencies, with individuals bringing waste to a separate drop-off area 300 feet from the main floor. They put that waste into containers, which are picked up by small rolloff trucks and carried to the main floor. We'll get 50 to 60 vehicles per day, and all go over the scale." There's one scale for inbound and another for outbound vehicles, which helps keep waiting in line to a minimum.

Indoor installation of a Finger Screen at the front end of a C&D system allows operation in a densely populated urban area

Another trend is figuring out ways to get more production with fewer people. Bill Guptail, director of process and international sales for General Kinematics Corporation in Crystal Lake, IL, notes that his firm is a producer of vibratory bulk-handling equipment. Speaking from the perspective of 35 years in the industry, he comments, "The future in screening is for better screening and better sizing. Also there will be better control of moisture content so waste can be better handled downstream in a given operation."

Currently his firm's screening equipment sizes the material for better downstream separation as the company seeks ways for more and more automation. "You can cut the number of people in half at an operation by taking 8-inch-minus material and use automated equipment through magnet separation, then take 2-inch-minus material out for [alternative daily cover] for landfills. Some states require 1-inch-minus, but generally 2-inch-minus is enough. From there that material goes through an air classifier, which separates the lights from the heavies."

Guptail emphasizes that industrywide he's seeing more material size-cutting for better material separations. "The first thing you do with screening is size it. Then you sort it. The industry is getting more and more automated."

He notes that vibratory units are designed for an operating life of 20 years or more, with much higher capacities. "We're talking about hundreds of yards per hour for machines such as our SC72-36 Finger Screen, which will handle 500 yards per hour of C&D waste."

Guptail also agrees that glass recovery will continue to grow, but utilizing C&D as a fuel source might take awhile before it's more practical. "As we look to using waste as a fuel, with C&D waste we need to first size it [and next] remove the unburnables. Then you have a product that can be used as a fuel."

But whether you're talking to the operators or the manufacturers, all agree that recycling will play a larger and larger role in the MSW industry and that both public and private operations can have profitable enterprises. The need is for each to know his potential market and focus on that market, whether it's paper, concrete, or glass - or even a host of diverse products whose fate used to involve the landfill.

Journalist Joseph Lynn Tilton specializes in land and building issues.

MSW - March/April 2004