Bay Counties Waste Services retrofits mixed waste MRF

According to a news release issued by San Diego-based CP Group, Bay Counties Waste Services (BCWS) of Sunnyvale, California, has retrofitted the Sunnyvale Materials Recovery and Transfer (SMaRT) Station’s municipal solid waste (MSW) processing system. The material recovery facility (MRF) was originally installed in 2009, and the retrofit, designed to increase recovery of containers, was completed by the CP Group in May 2015 in six weeks.

Pictured, from left: Jeff Nabhan, BCWS SMaRT Station facilities manager, and Jerry Nabhan, his father.

The system currently receives approximately 760 tons of MSW, 126 tons of green waste and 82 tons of residential curbside material daily, according to CP Group.

“The retrofitted system has increased our recovery rates dramatically for all of our commodities while maintaining our material quality,” says Jeff Nabhan, facilities manager for BCWS at the SMaRT Station^®.

The retrofit has enabled BCWS to increase recovery of organics by 65 percent, recovery of previously missed aluminum cans by 98.8 percent and recovery of previously missed PET (polyethylene terephthalate) by 97.9 percent, CP Group reports.

"Major retrofits are often more complex than new projects; clients place a lot of trust in us to get their system running with as little downtime possible,” says Omneya Salem, senior manager of project management and engineering for CP Group. “Considering material recovery goals are critical to a client's economic pro forma projections, Bay Counties placed a lot of trust in CP's approach. I'm happy to be part of the team that met and exceeded those initial client expectations,” Salem adds.  

The system retrofit included installation of two new CPScreens on the MSW line for the separation of 2D paper, films and residue from 3D containers and bulky waste. A new MSS Cirrus optical sorter was installed on the container line to identify and recover PET, HDPE (high-density polyethylene) and Nos. 3-7 plastics, according to CP Group. The operations interface was improved, and the new CPScreens were integrated with the existing MSW line. All new controls were implemented on the container line by CP Group’s electrical division, Advanced MRF.

“I don’t think we could have partnered with a better company to complete our retrofit,” Nabhan says. “From the initial planning to the final testing, CP offered a complete solution to every issue we had. They came up with new ideas that we hadn’t thought of to improve our system. Hopefully we will get the chance to work with CP in the future with more expansions.”

BCWS is a fourth-generation family-owned business that collects Sunnyvale’s residential and commercial garbage, recyclables, green waste and organics under an exclusive franchise agreement with the city of Sunnyvale. Under a separate contract with the city, the company operates the city-owned SMaRT Station, where it processes residential and commercial garbage, recyclables, green waste and organics from the California cities of Mountain View, Palo Alto and Sunnyvale. The SMaRT Station receives garbage, source-separated recyclables and yard trimmings collected from approximately 63,000 residential addresses, 49,000 multifamily addresses and 5,500 commercial addresses, totaling an estimated 280,000 people. The owners of BCWS operate four MRFs and are involved in the collection of material from 13 cities, including the San Francisco International Airport and Levi’s Stadium.

The CP Group of Cos. provides solutions for the waste, recycling and renewable energy industries. CP Group engineers, manufactures, installs and services MRFs worldwide for a variety of sectors. CP Manufacturing, Krause Manufacturing, MSS and Advanced MRF comprise the CP Group of Cos.