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Manufacturing Industry
Stepping things up: with price and demand for secondary commodities increasing, MRF operators are seeking ways to improve their operations
Recycling Today, June, 2005 by Dan Sandoval
Steve Sargent of Rumpke Recycling, a Cincinnati-based waste management and recycling company, says the company has been able to ship such higher grades of fiber as No. 8 news to some mills with its single-stream processing systems.
As the automation among MRFs grows, some companies are taking additional steps to further improve sorting.
WHETHER TO AUTOMATE. While not essential, many MRF operators find that one of the best ways to maximize their operations is through automating more heavily. Some companies are still reluctant to increase the level of automation at their MRFs, preferring to employ manual sorters, however, for some operators, especially those in California, the high cost of workmen's compensation is making it more expensive to have a larger labor force.
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RRT's Egosi says that private companies, such as Waste Management Inc. (through its RecycleAmerica Alliance subsidiary), are looking for more automation in their systems. However, he says, it appears municipalities are more leery of this method.
"While municipalities want better quality, there is some uncertainty on their part whether automation can do it," Egosi says.
Barry says Mid America seeks greater automation, as long as the business can justify it. While the company may seek automation and better equipment to improve the efficiency of its MRFs, Barry says Mid America takes a judicious approach toward equipment installation.
"We have found the cookie-cutter approach does not work for our recycling plants," Barry says. Rather than purchasing a system "off the shelf," he says Mid America looks to manufacturers in the same geographical area to put together a system that will work for that particular facility.
For example, if a facility has a five-sort system, a conveyor line is often unnecessary. However, as communities move toward single-stream collection programs, conveying and sorting equipment are needed.
Additionally, as single-stream collections continue to grow in popularity, more companies are looking to install optical sorting systems in their MRFs to aid in sorting and separation. Sargent says that while Rumpke's Columbus plant has an optical sorting system that is not included in its conveyor line, the move by the city of Columbus toward a bluebag program may mandate a change. "There is great potential for optical sorting. While it is not linked with the MRF right now, we are contemplating amending our line to include the optical sort," Sargent says.
Egosi says that on the plastics side, optical sorting can keep up with the MRF operations.
Ouellet agrees that optical sorting is an effective component in single-stream programs.
Gershman, though, says he feels that single-stream MRFs aren't the only answer to the question of increasing the tonnage of recovered recyclables. He says keeping some of the materials separate and then shipping a certain commodity to another plant for processing may also be beneficial to the MRF operator.
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