Balers and Recycling: Make It or Break It

Baler speed and dependability plays key role in single stream recycler's success

(San Jose, CA) — Since its founding as a recycling buyback center in 1992, California Waste Solutions of Oakland, Calif., has grown into a major presence on the West Coast as a collector and processor of recyclables for both residential and commercial accounts. In addition to the collection, processing, distribution, and sale of recycled products, CWS also designs, builds and manages recycling operations including processing plants, trans-loading facilities, and transportation hubs for regional systems. The company's development of solutions for resource preservation has become well-known in the industry.

A growing trend among recyclers is the conversion to single stream recycling, a process in which sorting takes place at the recycling facility instead of in the residents' homes. CWS recently converted their two Oakland dual stream recovery facilities to single stream operations. The completion of a third single stream facility late this summer brought CWS from its roots in Oakland, to San Jose, home of the largest curbside recycling contract in California. When San Jose officials decided to switch from multiple separations to single stream recycling on July 1, CWS partnered with Norcal Waste Systems, a local waste hauler, to service approximately 150,000 single family homes. The new partnership required the acquisition of a new facility and construction of a single stream processing operation.

As a first step in setting up the new San Jose facility, CWS President, David Duong, and a team of company representatives reviewed facility needs based on expected levels of output, then researched and purchased the necessary equipment. Joe Sloan, a Project Manager for CWS, has directed start-up operations at the new plant. Looking back, he says, "We knew that we'd have 400-500 tons of material to process at this plant per day. We had to acquire machinery that we trusted to process that much material. We also studied the composition of the material stream that was provided by the city, and designed the system from that point."

With this information in hand, CWS joined forces with George Gitschel of Rose Waste Systems, a local representative for Lindemann-American Baler and Machinex Industries. The end result of this alliance was the purchase and installation of a complete package of recycling equipment, custom built to meet CWS' precise specifications. Equipment included a system of 50 conveyors, five disc screens, a number of sorting platforms, magnets, eddy current separators, and bunkers, as well as two balers.

While baling machinery is logically one of the last steps in any recycling process, it is one of the most crucial components of the system. If a baler goes down, the entire system is brought to a halt. Sloan confirms, "We are constantly processing material — the balers never rest. If we lose a baler, we're really in trouble."

The specific balers purchased by CWS were selected based on the company's knowledge of equipment specifications needed to meet their daily processing requirements. According to Sloan, the most important features in selecting these balers included speed of the baling cycle, baler dependability, and support from the manufacturer. With advice and guidance from Gitschel, CWS purchased American Baler's Ram I baler for fiber baling and their Ram II baler for the baling of tin and aluminum containers, plastics, and residential waste.

The Ram I baler, designed specifically for the baling of miscellaneous fibers, is a fast, high-production baler that compacts material against the back of the last bale. A large hopper readily accepts large quantities of bulky materials, including OCC, ONP, and other grades of paper, producing a bale in less than 60 seconds. Compaction forces of up to 185 pounds per square inch produce dense bales, with bale length easily adjustable during operation.

The Ram II baler is capable of baling a variety of materials, particularly plastics, because it creates heavier bales by compacting against a steel wall and offering multiple wire wraps to hold the bale together. With bale displacement of up to 47,000 cubic feet per hour, it is considered one of the fastest in the industry. CWS' Ram II baler also features a multi-functional "versa-door" that enables true automatic baling by acting as a combination bale separation door/bale release, as well as offering a bale clamp function while the machine is in "plug-bale" mode. Operators can also vary the bale's third dimension to eject a custom-sized bale, or to keep one material from contaminating another. A redundant power pack allows the Ram II to continue baling with just one motor and pump bank while the others are being serviced.

Both of CWS's new balers are capable of handling 50 tons of material per hour and producing consistently dense bales, weighing up to 2,000 pounds. These heavier, denser bales allow operators to reduce wire use, move fewer bales, and fit more bales per shipment. Another benefit to CWS is baler versatility. Both balers are capable of processing any type of residential waste, giving CWS the option to temporarily run all lines into one baler if a problem arises.

Although Sloan and the staff at the San Jose facility are still making small adjustments to increase system efficiency, he is confident that the equipment selected will reliably exceed the required daily throughput of material. He says, "When we've tested maximum throughput in this plant, we've achieved a processing capacity of 67 tons per hour. I'm confident that we'll be able to maintain this capacity, thanks in large part to the reliability of the machinery in our plant and the factory support provided."
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