California waste service retrofits SMaRT processing system

Dive Brief:

Bay Counties Waste Services (BCWS) of Sunnyvale, CA, has retrofitted the Sunnyvale Materials Recovery and Transfer (SMaRT) Station’s municipal solid waste (MSW) processing system at its 6-year-old material recovery facility (MRF). Completed by San Diego-based CP Group in May, the retrofit increased recovery rates: organics by 65%; previously missed aluminum cans by 98.8%; and previously missed PET (polyethylene terephthalate) by 97.9%.
The retrofit included installation of two new CPScreens on the MSW line to separate 2D paper, films and residue from 3D containers and bulky waste. On the container line, a new MSS Cirrus optical sorter was installed to identify and recover PET, HDPE (high-density polyethylene) and Nos. 3-7 plastics. The system receives 760 tons of MSW, 126 tons of green waste and 82 tons of residential curbside material daily.
BCWS has an exclusive contract with Sunnyvale for residential and commercial garbage, recyclables, green waste, and organics. Under a separate contract, the company operates the city-owned SMaRT Station, where it processes residential and commercial garbage, recyclables, green waste and organics from Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale.

Dive Insight:

Flexibility is key at MRFs as so much recyclable material is wasted and the cost of disposing of recyclable materials is taking a toll on companies in the industry. Efficiency and flexibility at MRFs can increase recycling as well as opportunities for revenue.

In Sunnyvale, retrofitting is paying off with improved results. "The retrofitted system has increased our recovery rates dramatically for all of our commodities while maintaining our material quality," Jeff Nabhan, facilities manager for BCWS at the SMaRT Station, told Recycling Today.

Omneya Salem of CP Group added: "Major retrofits are often more complex than new projects."

Pratt Industries' new MRF at its base in Conyers, GA, is another facility that is adapting to become more efficient and useful. The facility is designed to recover mixed fiber, and also can process single-stream, commercial, and industrial material and commercial old corrugated containers (OCC).