future trends - recycling - material recycling facilities

FUTURE TRENDS – RECYCLING – MATERIAL RECYCLING FACILITIES

Eventually, non-organic waste will be a big business, and recycling will be one of the ways to recover the cost of creating, collecting, and sorting the waste created by communities. The launching point for this business will be the Material Recovery Facility. From this point, materials that can be recycled will be sold back to whoever can use them.

From Wikipedia:

A materials recovery facility, materials reclamation facility, materials recycling facility or Multi re-use facility (MRF, pronounced "murf") is a specialized plant that receives, separates and prepares recyclable materials for marketing to end user manufacturers. Generally, there are two different types: clean and dirty materials recovery facilities.

CLEAN MRF

A clean MRF accepts recyclable comingled materials that have already been separated at the source from municipal solid waste generated by either residential or commercial sources. There are a variety of clean MRFs. The most common are single stream where all recyclable material is mixed, or dual stream MRFs, where source-separated recyclables are delivered in a mixed container stream (typically glass, ferrous metal, aluminum and other nonferrous metals, PET [No.1] and HDPE [No.2] plastics) and a mixed paper stream including corrugated cardboard boxes, newspapers, magazines, office paper and junk mail. Material is sorted to specifications, then baled, shredded, crushed, compacted, or otherwise prepared for shipment to market.

WET MRF

Around 2004, new mechanical biological treatment technologies were beginning to utilise wet MRFs. These combine a dirty MRF with water, which acts to densify, separate and clean the output streams. It also hydro crushes and dissolves biodegradable organics in solution to make them suitable for anaerobic digestion.

Clean MRF appears the way most municipalities will eventually go because the interest in recycling is growing with the “Zero Waste” movement. This is especially the case if the area only has a landfill that it wants to minimize. Also, the community that takes this route also wants to eliminate thermal methods of disposing of excess waste. This could (and should be) be the route taken by most high density population areas.

SINGLE STREAM RECYCLING

Single-stream (also known as “fully commingled” or "single-sort") recycling refers to a system in which all paper fibers, plastics, metals, and other containers are mixed in a collection truck, instead of being sorted by the depositor into separate commodities (newspaper, paperboard, corrugated fiberboard, plastic, glass, etc.) and handled separately throughout the collection process. In single-stream, both the collection and processing systems

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper


are designed to handle this fully commingled mixture of recyclables, with materials being separated for reuse at a materials recovery facility (MRF).

Advantages

Proponents of single-stream note several advantages:

Reduced sorting effort by residents may mean more recyclables are placed at the curb and more residents may participate in recycling;

Reduced collection costs because single-compartment trucks are cheaper to purchase and operate, collection can be automated, and collection routes can be serviced more efficiently;

Greater fleet flexibility, which allows single-compartment vehicles to be used to collect recycling, providing greater fleet flexibility and reducing the number of reserve vehicles needed. To avoid confusing customers, a large sign or banner is sometimes used to distinguish when a refuse truck is being used to collect recycling (instead of refuse).

Worker injuries may decrease because the switch to single-stream is often accompanied by a switch from bins to cart-based collection.

Changing to single-stream may provide an opportunity to update the collection and processing system and to add new materials to the list of recyclables accepted; and

More paper grades may be collected, including junk mail, telephone books and mixed residential paper.

Disadvantages

Potential disadvantages of single-stream recycling may include:

Initial capital cost for:

New carts Different collection vehicles Upgrading the processing facility Processing costs may increase compared to multiple stream systems Possible reduced commodity prices due to contamination of paper or plastic Increased down cycling of paper, i.e., use of high quality fibers for low-end uses like

boxboard because of presence of contaminants; Possible increase in residual rates after processing (chiefly because of increased

breakage of glass) Potential for diminished public confidence if more recyclables are destined

for landfill disposal because of contamination or inability to market materials.

See Figures 1, 2, and 3 for the 75 largest material recovery facilities in the United States as of 2014. The recent notable large MRFs are:

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materials_recovery_facility


Lakeshore Recycling Systems – Forest View, Illinois – 110,000 tons per year City of Milwaukee and Waukesha County MRF – Milwaukee, Wisconsin – 60,000 tons

per year Republic Services Southern Nevada Recycling Center & Learning Center – North Las

Vegas, Nevada – 175,000 tons per year FCC Environmental Services MRF – Dallas, Texas – 120,000 tons per year

There might be other larger MRFs built since 2014, but I can’t find them on the internet.

The single-stream design with glass included, in my opinion, is what is needed for the future in order to maximize the most valuable recyclable items. A typical incoming load to a single-stream MRF might be similar to Figure 4, “Waste Management Single Stream Requirements”.

The problem areas for single stream systems have been:

Styrofoam food containers and packing end up in a landfill usually although some states have Dart foam recycling collection locations. This is a major problem in the U.S. and will eventually result in Styrofoam being prohibited in many large metropolitan areas.

Plastic coated paper and cardboard usually ends up in a landfill, but could go to anaerobic digestion.

Any greasy or dirty cardboard usually ends up in a landfill, but could go to anaerobic digestion.

Medical waste must be sent to incineration via an experienced medical waste disposal company like “Stericycle”.

Scrap metal can be handled by metal recyclers. Household hazardous waste must be incinerated by Waste Management, Clean

Harbors, or Veolia North America among others. Batteries disposal can be handled by Waste Management, Clean Harbors, or Veolia

North America among others. Lighting disposal can be handled by Waste Management, Clean Harbors, or Veolia North

America among others. Electrical wiring can be sent to an appropriate wiring chopping facility. Electronics disposal can be handled by Waste Management, Clean Harbors, or Veolia

North America among others (Contact Coalition for American Electronics Recycling) Cellular Phones disposal end up with the original service provider. CDs, DVDs, optical discs, floppy discs, video tapes, and old vinyl records mostly end up

in landfills. CDs and DVDs are polycarbonate so they could be recycled. Bulk CDs and DVDs can be shipped to NESAR Systems or Digital Audio Disk Corporation’s Disk Recycling Program or Plastic Recycling. You have to pay the postage.

Printer cartridges can be returned to Office Depot or Staples. Household appliances can be recycled by finding the nearest recycler at ARCA.

Recycling, Inc., arcainc.com.

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Aerosol cans are considered hazardous waste but most end up in landfills. This area is a bit confusing because there is a great deal of talk about assuring cans are empty (see www.aerosolv.com) and recycling these cans like other scrap steel.

Paint cans are a big problem. Oil based paints are considered hazardous waste. Water based paints are considered hazardous waste in California, Washington, and Minnesota. Many large urban areas have household hazardous waste collection programs that handle paint cans.

Broken glass, ceramic cups and dishes, mirrors, light bulbs, and glass windows all have to be handled in another way or end up in a landfill.

Food waste must go to an anaerobic digestion facility or landfill. Yard trimmings must go to an anaerobic digestion facility or landfill Building destruction – concrete and wood. A major problem in U.S. which can’t be

economically solved in the Age of Growth. Household furniture, mattresses, cookware, and light fixtures, and fans. Same as

building destruction problem. Wooden flooring and carpet. Same as building destruction problem.

As Humans move forward, many of these problems will be addressed one way or another as the transition from the Age of Growth to the Age of Survival achieves “escape velocity”.

Organics, mainly food waste and yard trimmings, remain the immediate problem for recycling in the “Zero Waste” movement. There are two ways to go – mixed waste processing facilities and separate organics from recycles at the source. Where is the source? Where the “garbage cans” used to be! That means there are many, many sources, and collection becomes the overwhelming issue to make all this work in the long run. We will get back to that issue, but first the two options. From Wikipedia:

Mixed-waste processing facility (MWPF)

A mixed-waste processing system, sometimes referred to as a dirty MRF, accepts a mixed solid waste stream and then proceeds to separate out designated recyclable materials through a combination of manual and mechanical sorting. The sorted recyclable materials may undergo further processing required to meet technical specifications established by end-markets while the balance of the mixed waste stream is sent to a disposal facility such as a landfill. Today, MWPFs are attracting renewed interest as a way to address low participation rates for source-separated recycling collection systems and prepare fuel products and/or feedstocks for conversion technologies.

MWPFs can give communities the opportunity to recycle at much higher rates than has been demonstrated by curbside or other waste collection systems. Advances in technology make today’s MWPF different and, in many respects better, than older versions.

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The percentage of residuals (unrecoverable recyclable or non-program materials) from a properly operated clean MRF supported by an effective public outreach and education program should not exceed 10% by weight of the total delivered stream and in many cases it can be significantly below 5%. A dirty MRF recovers between 5% and 45% of the incoming material as recyclables, then the remainder is landfilled or otherwise disposed. A dirty MRF can be capable of higher recovery rates than a clean MRF, since it ensures that 100% of the waste stream is subjected to the sorting process, and can target a greater number of materials for recovery than can usually be accommodated by sorting at the source. However, the dirty MRF process results in greater contamination of recyclables, especially of paper. Furthermore, a facility that accepts mixed solid waste is usually more challenging and more expensive to site. Operational costs can be higher because it is more labor-intensive.

This is a very poor idea. Why? The recyclables get contaminated, which requires even more energy to facilitate separation and then disposal. In petrochemical wastewater treatment, one of the common energy and operational cost savings measures, which was never discussed in the 1970s and 80s, is to separate storm water from various contaminated waters in a plant. The stormwater should be able to return to source without expensive treatment. This way the wastewater treatment process can be smaller and use less energy. Common sense? Apparently it isn’t because these things are never thought about in any initial environmental movement. It’s always about first cost.

When energy is cheap, you don’t have to think about those things, huh Baby Boomers? If we spend on energy conservation, we have less money to spend on “stuff”. Future generations will not be that lucky. We are running out of useful energy, Pilgrims! Get that through your heads! It takes energy to accommodate “Zero Waste”. So do it right the first time and minimize energy use, using an Exxon project scope objective.

So what’s the alternative? Separate potential recyclables from organics at the source with at least two bins – one for waste to the MRF and one to an organics handling facility. Now we are getting the hang of this “Zero Waste” concept. What’s an organics handling facility? Well, it returns organics to some useful state, hopefully minimizing energy consumption in the process.

Now back to wastewater treatment. What do wastewater treatment plants do? They return contaminated water back to the source in sufficiently “good quality” for the surrounding community. The system uses energy to do that, right? How about recovering energy from the wastewater? Can that be done? Yes it can be done and is done and will be done in greater frequency with anaerobic digestion. The Baby Boomers didn’t worry about energy consumption, and aerobic wastewater treatment was less expensive first cost and easier to operate.

Times are changing and anaerobic digestion is the future of water and organic solids treatment. The energy consumption to operate the facility and recover the waste at the source can be reduced by recovering biogas. It’s better than nothing! However, it cost up front. But Pilgrims,

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the days of create it and throw it away are coming to an end. So spend up front and take care of it down the timeline. That’s all you have to work with!

There are two types of anaerobic waste treatment – wet and dry. Now “they” always give you two choices – short term good and long term good. This is how they separate according to intelligence levels, you see.

Wet involves water. This water gets contaminated, and now the same old story like a broken record. Don’t mix the good with bad! Specifically, don’t mix water with the waste! “Fresh water” is valuable too you know or will know eventually. That leaves dry anaerobic digestion. From the BHS Family, Zero Waste Energy website:

SMARTFERM® Dry AD Technology (See Figure 5)

Zero Waste Energy can design facilities for 5,000 TPY to 100,000 TPY of almost any organic material utilizing SMARTFERM proprietary technology. SMARTFERM is a state-of-the-art dry anaerobic digestion system for organic waste processing. Like other dry fermentation, it is well suited for the production of biogas from stacked solid organic waste in a non-continuous batch process. Unlike other dry fermentation technologies, SMARTFERM offers a sub-grade percolate tank, which significantly reduces percolate and biogas process piping runs as well as the size of motors and fans to move them. The sub-grade percolate tank also greatly enhances the overall thermal efficiency of the process. The SMARTFERM design allows for a thermophilic mode of operation and is offered on two platforms: a shop fabricated steel digester system or as a cast-in-place concrete digester system.

All SMARTFERM systems can be designed to include biogas-processing technology for combined heat and power (CHP) generation for both onsite use and export as well as compressed natural gas (CNG) for use to fuel waste transport vehicles. In addition, in-vessel composting (IVC) options can provide partial or complete sanitizing of compost for the wholesale or retail market.

ZWE offers a number of approaches to turn SMARTFERM® digestate into salable compost. Our fully enclosed In-Vessel Composting System is a proven industrial approach to complete maturation of compost for sale. The ZWE Lane Turner is the newest technology to use traditional turning technologies with IVC to mature and process digestate into high quality compost.

ZWE offers a post-digester treatment technology to mature the compost and remove ammonia from the digestate with its In-Vessel Composting (IVC) and Lane Turner (LT) technologies. IVC is a fully enclosed system that accelerates and accurately controls the natural aerobic break down of biodegradable waste to create a high-quality compost product. With the ZWE patented IVC and LT Systems, the active compost process and maturation period can be accomplished

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in less than 28 days. At the end of this period, compost is ready to bag for retail sales or sold in bulk to end users.

ZWE can also provide a partial treatment version of its IVC System that offers a more limited process. This is a shorter process that treats digestate for three to four days in the IVC tunnel, removing most of the odor-causing ammonia to make it acceptable for truck transport, if necessary. The combination of the ZWE AD process for green energy production and IVC for composting of the digestate yields a complete organics strategy that can be deployed in an urban location.

Highlights of the full IVC process include:

The 28-day batch average cycle time is more than 50% less than traditional aerobic compost processes. It includes the active composting process as well as the aeration and circulation system to expedite pathogen kill and control odors.

The finished product meets all Process to Further Reduce Pathogens (PFRP) requirements and is technically classified as finished compost.

Plants require a smaller footprint than traditional systems because there is no requirement for product maturation in windrows. This creates opportunities for comprehensive urban applications as well as lower infrastructure and operating costs.

All odor issues are addressed during the 28-day process. The material produced at the end of the process contains the lowest moisture content of

any available system and produces premium grade, mature compost.

These features allow for a high proportion of the waste stream to be diverted from the landfill and add value by improving material throughput time. This creates advantages for the customer in the form of reduced storage space requirements and lower operating costs per ton processed. It also effectively addresses pathogen kill requirements, eliminates odor concerns, and produces mature compost.

Sounds good, huh? What do I do with the compost? I don’t need compost! Don’t worry about that, you will need compost, Pilgrims, you will.

All the problems are solved now, right? Wrong, that old Second Law of Thermodynamics keeps rolling along. It takes energy for this “Zero Waste” movement. How about “Don’t create it in the first place”? How about that idea? The two ideas will have to work together in the future if there is to be a continuation of the future. Start slow but pick up speed fast because time is running out fast!

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FIGURE 1

75 LARGEST MATERIAL RECOVERY FACILITIES IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA AS OF 2014

(From Recyclingtoday.com)

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FIGURE 2

TOP 45 MATERIAL RECOVERY FACILITIES IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA AS OF 2014


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FIGURE 3

NEXT 45 LARGEST MATERIAL RECOVERY FACILITIES IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA AS OF 2014


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(For Sales to WM Recycle America, L.L.C.)

Commingled Recyclables, consisting of recyclable glass, aluminum, cans, plastics and papers, generally collected from residential recycling, as follows:

Materials Accepted:

Aluminum food and beverage containersGlass food and beverage containers – brown, clear, or green Ferrous (Iron) cansPET plastic containers with the symbol #1 – with screw tops only, without capsHDPE natural plastic containers with the symbol #2 – narrow neck containers only (milk and water bottles)HDPE pigmented plastic containers with the symbol #2 – narrow neck containers only, without caps (detergent, shampoo bottles, etc.Plastics with symbols #3, #4, #5, #6, #7-narrow and screw top containers NewsprintOld corrugated cardboard MagazinesCatalogs Cereal boxesTelephone books Printer paper Copier paper MailAll other office paper without wax liners

Materials Not Accepted, include but are not limited to (“Unacceptable Materials”) :

Microwave traysMirrorsWindow or auto glass Light BulbsCeramics PorcelainPlastics unnumbered Plastic bagsCoat hangersGlass cookware/bakewareHousehold items such as cooking pots, toasters, etc.

All glass containers must by empty and free of metal caps and rings and contain less than 5% food debris. All tin cans, bi-metal cans, and aluminum cans must be empty and contain less than 5% food debris.All aerosol cans must be empty with less than 5% contentAll plastic containers must be empty, caps removed; less than 5% food debris. All Fiber must be dry and free of food debris and other contaminating material.Tissues, paper towels or other paper that has been in contact with food is not acceptable. Recyclables may contain up to 5% Unacceptable Materials, provided however, Recyclables may not:Materially impair the strength or the durability of the COMPANY’s structures or equipment; orCreate flammable or explosive conditions in COMPANY’s facilities;Contain dry cell batteries of lead acid batteries;Contain chemical or other properties which are deleterious or capable of causing material damage to any part of COMPANY’s property, its personnel or the public; orContain Excluded Materials defined as any waste tires, radioactive, volatile, corrosive, flammable, explosive, biomedical, infectious, biohazardous, regulated medical or hazardous waste, toxic substance or material, as defined by, characterized or listed under applicable federal, state, or local laws or regulations, or other waste not approved in writing by COMPANY.

Loads not meeting the specifications may be rejected in whole or in part by COMPANY.

FIGURE 4

WASTE MANAGEMENT SINGLE STREAM REQUIREMENTS

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FIGURE 5

“SMARTFERM” DRY AD TECHNOLOGY

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