To mark its 10th anniversary, company also will introduce a new corporate identity.
Austrian extrusion machinery manufacturer Maschinen und Anlagenbau Schulz GmbH (MAS) will mark its 10th anniversary with the introduction of a new corporate identity in combination with new machine designs for its extruder and melt filter series at K 2016.
The conical, co-rotating, twin-screw extruder is “the bread and butter” of the company, MAS says. Its large feed opening and gentle plasticisation process make it ideal for extrusion applications that require a high degree of thermal and mechanical polymer protection, the company says. This is particularly the case for recycling and compounding applications, as well as for film extrusion. MAS has delivered 110 units delivered throughout the last 10 years.
The second component of MAS’ technology is the waterless DRD (double-rotor-disc) cleaning and drying system for shredded film or fibres and regrind material, introduced in 2006. More than 50 of these machines have gone into operation around the world since 2006.
The third pillar of MAS technology, the CDF continuous melt filter, was introduced in 2011. Its design allows customers to process highly contaminated materials and help increase extruder capacity, the company says.
MAS says it plans to present three machines at K 2016, Hall 9 / Stand D 42, representing its latest product developments.
The MAS 24 Lab Extruder has been developed specifically for plastics manufacturers and compounders to develop formulas in a scientifically oriented manner and produce them in very small volumes, the company says. The highly compact build, with a screw length of just 400 millimetres and a diameter of 48 millimetres, narrowing down to 24 millimetres, is equipped with interchangeable mixing elements. The large feed opening makes it possible to process regrind material, flakes and finely ground film or fibres, MAS says. It also allows full control over shear strength and, thus, the melt temperature of the material by varying the screw speed (adjustable from 0 to 300 rpm). The maximum output of this lab machine is in the range of 10 to 35 kilograms per hour. The MAS 24 Lab Extruder will be presented in operation at K 2016 in combination with an underwater pelletizing unit.
MAS also will present the third generation of its conical, co-rotating, twin-screw extruder. It is available in six different sizes with output ranges from 10 kilograms per hour to more than 2,000 kilograms per hour. The characterising feature of MAS’ new extruder generation is its optimised machine design, according to the company. Its segmented barrel construction permits the exchange of individual barrel sections rather than the entire cylinder or the selective application of special wear protection to individual cylinder sections. The new series is exemplified by the MAS 75, which is suitable for an output of up to 1,100 kilograms per hour, the company says.
MAS says its technology has held a U.S. Food and Drug Administration "No Objection Letter" for food-contact grade recycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) since mid-2015 and meets all European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) criteria.
MAS also will exhibit the latest generation CDF (continuous disc filter) melt filter series, a leading continuous filter system for recycling applications. The CDF system has reached its current status thanks to a design that permits previously unattainable filtration surfaces, the company says. The smallest CDF 300 uses a 300-millimetre disc with a 792-square-centimetre filter surface area and is suitable for a melt throughput of 300 to 700 kilograms per hour. All other sizes use a 510-millimetre filter disc. The CDF 500, with one disc, offers a filtration area of 1,640 square centimetres (700 to 1,600 kilograms per hour). The next step up, the CDF-500-D (two parallel discs), offers twice the filter surface area at 3,280 square centimetres and allows a throughput of 1,300 to 2,000 kilograms per hour. The largest filter unit, with the designation CDF-500-D-P, consists of two parallel CDF-500-D units with a total of four filter discs and a filter surface area of 6,560 square centimetres. At a possible melt throughput of up to 4,000 kilograms per hour, it is currently one of the highest-performing units of its size on the market, MAS says.
The filter consists of a rotating screen combined with a continuous scraper system, which lifts the contamination from the screen surface and discharges it through an auger. The reusable filtration disc is made of surface-hardened steel and is available in filtration sizes ranging from 90 to 750 micrometres.
The filter system is now equipped with a new pneumatic scraper. MAS says this feature allows a higher degree of adjustability for the stable performance of the system.
Further features of the latest filter generation include optimised melt channels as well as changes to the heating system to heating plates and bands, improving the heating coefficient, according to the company.
Hartmut Bendfeldt, president of eFactor 3 LLC / MAS-America, represents MAS equipment in North American and can be contacted at hbendfeldt@efactor3.com or at hbendfeldt@mas-america.com. Stefan Lehner is sales manager for MAS GmbH and can be contacted at lehner@mas-austria.com.
Company offers residential and commercial trash, recycling and composting services in Colorado’s Broomfield and Boulder counties.
Boulder, Colorado-based Western Disposal Services is celebrating 46 years serving residents and businesses in Colorado’s Broomfield and Boulder counties. The company provides residential and commercial trash, recycling and composting services.
Since its founding in August of 1970, Western Disposal has grown to employ more than 150 people and has become the largest private hauler in Broomfield and Boulder counties.
The company launched its commercial compost facility in 2001 and continues to work toward local communities’ zero-waste goals.
“When we started in 1970 with one truck, we wanted to distinguish the quality of our service and our dedication to the community from our competitors,” says Bryce Isaacson, vice president of sales and marketing at Western Disposal. “We have now grown to a fleet of over 70 collection vehicles and expanded our services to include recycling and composting options for the community. Our dependable, responsive service sets us apart.”
He continues, “The introduction of our commercial compost facility—the first and only one of its kind in Boulder County—and investing in energy-efficient technologies for our headquarters and our collection fleet further reflects our continued growth and commitment to the environment and the values of the communities we serve.”
Western Disposal supports local charities and nonprofits, serving as the flagship partner for Impact on Education’s “Crayons to Calculators” initiative for nearly a decade. In 2016, the company says it surpassed the $1 million fundraising mark.
“We are pleased to provide service to communities throughout Boulder and Broomfield counties that are committed to reducing their environmental impact and conserving natural resources,” says Kathleen Carroll, sales and marketing coordinator at Western Disposal. “We partner with both residential and commercial customers to provide services and education that increases waste diversion and reduces the amount of waste sent to the landfill.”
Purchase extends the company’s regional coverage into Nebraska.
Mobile document destruction company A Shred Ahead , headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, has acquired Paper Dragon of Grand Island, Nebraska, extending its regional coverage into that state.
Paper Dragon was a local, family-owned shredding company serving Central Nebraska for nearly a decade. The company also was very active in the local community, hosting annual community shredding events, as well as many other forms of outreach.
A Shred Ahead says existing Paper Dragon clients can expect A Shred Ahead to continue offering the same quality shredding and support with no gaps in service. Additionally, as a larger regional shredder, A Shred Ahead will bring more capacity and resources to the area.
"Everyone here at A Shred Ahead is excited to hit the ground running in central Nebraska, and we couldn't be happier to acquire a local leader in Paper Dragon," says John Chapman, co-owner of A Shred Ahead. "It's always inspiring to see the impact a company like Paper Dragon has in their community. Our goal has always been to provide the personal service and support of a small, local business with the resources and capability of a national company. We're very excited for the opportunity to bring A Shred Ahead to a new area and market."
Since the company's founding in 2003, A Shred Ahead has expanded from a local shredding company serving the Raleigh area to one of the largest independent regional shredding services in the United States. A Shred Ahead says it now serves the shredding and document destruction needs of clients in 13 states, and the company is continually growing its operational coverage as opportunities in new markets become available.
A working group of the International Solid Waste Association reviews the industry’s options to respond to Europe’s Circular Economy targets.
A recent event of the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) and its European group organised in Brussels, titled “Circular Economy: from concepts to projects,” provided useful insights into the real challenges involved in the effort to shift toward a Circular Economy, and triggered very thoughtful discussions. The event consisted of two separate sessions and discussed the policies and measures required to boost the development of proper secondary materials’ markets in the EU and the role of residual waste treatment in the Circular Economy Package. The event was based on ISWA’s ground-breaking reports on Resource Management.
Also, in-depth discussions on the Circular Economy were held at CleanEnviro Summit Singapore (CESS) 2016 at the Marina Bay Sands Exhibition and Convention Centre from 10 to 14 July 2016. CESS Waste Management Track 1 “Circular Economy for Greater Competitiveness” took a close look at how the circular economy can help decouple economic growth from natural resource consumption while driving greater competitiveness. The session had discussed potential barriers and solutions, and focus on the strategies and approaches that could be adopted in shaping a circular economy.”
From linear to circular – the concept of the circular economy
Every year the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates the equivalent of about one-fifth of global material extraction becomes waste. ISWA estimates 70% of this is disposed in landfills. Not only do materials follow this linear approach, but also the surrounding health, safety and environmental legislation and market conditions in place generally support this model. In such an economy, OECD estimates suggest that municipal solid waste will rise by 0.69% for every 1% increase in national income. Economic development generates more waste and produces more pressure on virgin supplies, i.e. the earth’s stock of natural resources.
Björn Appelqvist, coordinator of ISWA’s Task Force on Resource Management and chair of the Working Group on Recycling and Waste Minimization, says, “ The emergence of the concept of the circular economy in its present form is mainly driven by three factors; price signals in commodity markets, environmental legislation and green taxation.”
Price signals for raw materials are a key driver in any change to the circular economy. The linear economy has been fuelled by falling prices since 1900. However, a change to this situation emerged in 2000. Growth in demand for raw materials between 2000 and 2010 reversed that trend and in 10 years all the price reduction gains of the last 100 years were wiped out. Environmental legislation has and continues to drive major change in all business activity. It is a major risk factor for many international companies.
The third major driver of change is green taxation. According to Appelqvist, who also serves as department manager of site solutions and waste management at the Denmark-based firm Ramboll, “Across OECD countries it is increasingly being seen as a tool for policy makers to drive environmental change and support the flows of secondary raw materials into the market place. As green taxation has been applied to landfill and incineration, gate fees have also risen to offset higher costs associated with effective environmental management of emissions. For waste producers, inactivity results in higher disposal costs, particularly in countries where tax escalator principles are used and the tax rises each year. Doing nothing becomes the most expensive option and over time such policies drive rapid change”.
The circular economy challenges the status quo, is disruptive and contains major business risks. Unless the economic drivers for that change are clear companies will not adopt it. Commodity prices are, however, unpredictable and although the price spike between 2000 and 2010 is clear, whether or not we have reached a genuine tipping point, caused by global demand is still challenged.
The unexpected fall in oil, copper, gold and iron ore prices late in 2014 has fuelled this debate. Oil prices in December 2014 had fallen by 40%, gold by 30%. In this light, it is fair to ask whether the idea of the circular economy was no more than an environmental fad and a political spin or if there is real and long-term substance behind the circular economy approach?
Antonis Mavropoulos, ISWA’s Scientific and Technical Committee chair, is more than sure that “despite the recent fall in commodity prices, we will experience a real and ongoing rise in demand for resources and commodities. The present low prices will not last. The reasons for change are primarily the growth in demand for primary raw materials.”
This growth in demand is driven in turn by population growth and the increasing prosperity of people across the globe. The United Nations (UN) projects global population to grow by more than 2.5 billion by 2050, and others predict the middle class aspiring to the same standards of living as western economies will grow by 3 billion people. If these trends continue, the UN predicts annual resource extraction would need to triple by 2050 compared to extraction in 2000 with extra pressure on land, water and energy usage as a consequence.
What opportunities does the circular economy bring?
However, Mavropoulos considers the recent fluctuations in recycling markets are not only connected to the commodities markets volatility, but to something more important. In a recent post in his blog he writes, “I think the challenges related to recycling markets are more systemic. What really happens is that the global recycling markets are disrupted by the combination of two major trends of our era: the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Circular Economy.”
Still, the transition to a circular economy approach provides a major business opportunity. The UN Global Compact study by Accenture on the views of CEOs on Sustainability in the Mining and Metals sector, covering 1,000 CEOs in 103 countries and across 27 industries says there is a potential $1 trillion opportunity in transitioning to the circular economy, and that companies are recognizing that preservation makes as much economic sense as it does environmental.
The current market for secondary raw materials is already worth $200 billion and estimated at 700-800 million tonnes. It is dominated by recovered metals (nearly 50% by value) and paper (recovered paper now makes up 50% of the global paper market). Appelqvist identifies opportunities in the recovery of plastics, raw materials from electronic scrap and textiles.
The potential amount of organic waste that could be processed in the OECD is double what is currently produced. The resources contained within this increased amount are substantial: between up to 3 million tonnes of nitrogen and 4 to 41 million tonnes of carbon. That is equal to about 14% of the nitrogen that was applied across 23 OECD countries in 2009.
According to ISWA’s reports, the potential municipal solid waste available for waste-to-energy (WtE) and anaerobic digestion (AD) with biogas collection across the OECD is significantly greater than what is currently processed. Energy production could more than double from WtE and the potential from household biological waste is estimated to be 0.3% of current natural gas consumption.
Leaders in the waste industry say the circular economy gives the industry an opportunity to extend its journey beyond recycling and engage with forward thinkers in design and manufacturing. During the recent ISWA event in Brussels there was a common approach and agreement regarding the role of waste management industry.
As Mavropoulos comments, “Waste companies have the opportunity to engage in the design of products and services and show designers how they can recover and reuse secondary materials to improve the profitability of new business models as they emerge. By taking such action they believe the waste industry will be better positioned to advise on best practices for cascading materials through cycles of re-use; to identify the optimum opportunities to extract energy from these materials; and to design in strategic safe final sinks for unusable materials.”
We are not there yet
Appelqvist is clear on the real challenges for the waste management sector. “The challenge for the waste management sector is to make secondary raw materials the priority raw materials for the future. This can be achieved by targeting the production of secondary raw materials that are required by manufacturers to a price, quality and quantity unsurpassed by conventional markets. By working together, we can raise the quality and quantity levels of recycled materials reprocessed in our industries. We need to ensure products are recyclable, reduce their recovery costs and eliminate, where possible, non-recyclables from the product chain.”
However, until the environmental and climate impact of the usage of virgin raw materials are internalized into production costs and subsidies on production and consumption of fossil fuels are removed, commodity markets will be biased toward the use of virgin raw materials and fossil fuels, he adds.
Jonathan Oldfield of U.K.-based Riverside Waste Machinery says balers continue to provide a key link in the recycling chain.
In an industry crowded with technological innovations, the value of “old, faithful” balers often gets overlooked, says Jonathan Oldfield, managing director of United Kingdom-based Riverside Waste Machinery (RWM). Regarding the overall role baling presses play in the world of recovered fibre, Oldfield shares his thoughts below.
Two materials have long been cited as two of the most important materials for the UK to recycle: clean, used cardboard and paper, which provide mills throughout the country with recovered fibre they can then transform into new card, newspaper and tissue-based products. In fact, in 2015, such salvaged resources represented more than 70% of the fibre used to manufacture paper and board throughout the country.
This is, perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the nation’s greatest recycling success stories. The prices that mills will pay for a tonne of recovered paper and cardboard rose during the first half of 2016. And overseas demand for such fibres shows no sign of dwindling, with 4.9 million tonnes of excess capacity scrap card and paper exported last year. There’s therefore no better time to develop a strategy to extract these materials from the general waste stream and ensure their retention in the circular economy.
But what is the best way to handle scrap paper? What equipment is required? And with so much technological innovation within the recycling machinery marketplace, does the importance of the trusty baler sometimes get forgotten about?
In all honesty, the role of a baler can often be overlooked. In some respects, it’s hardly surprising. There are so many groundbreaking innovations occurring elsewhere in the waste and recycling industry that other feats of engineering naturally steal the spotlight. We once thought of refuse collection vehicles as nothing but “smelly bin lorries” for instance. Now they are clean, energy-efficient technologies of sleek, aero-dynamic construction, with some councils going so far as to use them as communication tools in local communities.
Elsewhere high resolution near infrared (NIR) optical sorters have been designed to facilitate the precise and automated separation of materials using identification algorithms and high-pressure air jets. And energy-efficient waste shredders can now transform bulky untreated material into a fine, homogenous 50mm particle size, consequently creating a renewable energy source that can combat depleting fossil fuel stocks.
The list of waste and recycling technology “talking points” could go on, so perhaps balers just don’t seem as revolutionary, especially if they’re only handling an everyday material like paper or cardboard. Also, from a technical standpoint, they are quite simple. But that’s because they don’t need to be anything more. And they still have a role to play.
Without a baler, the waste or scrap generator has a number of options. Once salvaged, paper and card can be taped up for collection, or left out in woven plastic sacks, wheeled bins, roll cages or skips. But loose materials naturally take up more space, which doesn’t just present a storage issue – this can result in spiralling disposal costs too.
A baler therefore acts as an important volume reduction tool, which should result in a safer, tidier site and reduce the list of unnecessary recycling collection times and the number of skips.
Balers also help to increase the yield that the scrap generator will get from the sale of the admittedly valuable recovered fibre. That’s because neatly baled paper or card is easier – and more cost-effective – to transport than when the material is loose. Bales maximise every square centimetre of a vehicle’s load, ensuring the recycling trucks carry more fibre – and less air – per trip. The increased payload doesn’t just save on fuel and financial expense – it benefits the environment as well.
These fiscal advantages are magnified when producing mill size bales of 450 kilograms (990 pounds) and above. Such bales attract optimum revenue because they don’t need to be broken down or re-baled before being loaded for shipment to the mills themselves.
Of course not every organisation will produce enough packaging scrap to merit such large bales, but for firms handling high volumes of recyclates, this should be the goal. Bale value can also be protected by avoiding recyclate contamination so, if both paper and cardboard streams are being handled at once, a twin chamber baler will encourage segregation at source, which maintains throughput efficiencies whilst preserving bale quality.
A baler is often only one important component within the recovered fibre arena. If scrap paper comprises confidential information, for example, it must first be securely destroyed in accordance with the Data Protection Act. A shredder will therefore act as a value-adding asset to ensure compliance, before the resulting fraction can be baled. Even then, alternative machinery such as a waste compactor could be used to compress the material in a container, before it is collected by a recycling contractor.
In such scenarios, recyclates can even be mixed which saves time and sorting effort. However, this is usually a more expensive methodology which can increase the risk of fibre contamination or destruction, and typically requires more site space. Balers, on the other hand, don’t have to be vast pieces of equipment with a large footprint. They can easily slot into a variety of sites – even those with space constraints.
Perhaps this is where baler manufacturers have embraced innovation. Engineering advancements in baling may not break the same boundaries as the aforementioned examples. But machines have been continually developed to ensure they are attainable for organisations of all shapes and sizes. The technology doesn’t just exist for large, high-profile blue chip companies. Unlike a high-end optical sorter or a 20-tonne waste-to-energy shredder, a baler isn’t something that only large-scale businesses can afford.
Innovation has driven seemingly simple efficiencies, but ones that make operators’ lives easier, safer and more profitable. Large loading apertures, even on relatively compact vertical machines, make it quick and easy to handle even bulky cardboard, for example, without the need for folding. Fabrication methods mean the machinery can have a long life even if used outdoors, which suits a variety of recycling scenarios. And ever smarter maintenance regimes minimise the disruption that this effortlessly simple technology will have on the ordinary activity of the operating firm.
Some people readily acknowledge these benefits and place balers in fairly high regard. They note, perhaps, that they’re the ‘tortoise’ of the industry – a technological concept that has been around a long time, but one that steadily continues to drive recycling success. Others remember the advantages of using a baler only when they take the time to really think about them. Very much like a mobile phone, the baler has probably now become a part of everyday life, leaving its true value somewhat neglected.
And of course there are those who are yet to realise the role that a baler plays in the recovered fibre landscape. Balers are back-end machines; technologies that work hard behind the scenes. They are not the priority for a hotel, for example, whose primary objective is to fill rooms and encourage guests to return for another stay. However, a baler has a part to play in that hotel running a successful, tidy and environmentally responsible business. It is a crucial piece of the jigsaw. And that’s what we need to keep communicating.