[EQUIPMENT REPORT]

Solid waste and recycling truck body maker Heil Environmental Industries Ltd., Chattanooga, Tenn., has become the exclusive supplier of truck bodies to Onyx Waste Services Inc., Milwaukee, for the next three years.

Onyx, consisting of the former Superior Services Inc. and other waste and recycling companies acquired by Onyx North America, will purchase recycling collection and rear-loading and front-loading waste collection bodies exclusively from Heil through May of 2005, extending a contract that began in early 2002.

"Heil makes good products and does a great job of taking care of any problems and service issues we have," says Onyx Waste Services Purchasing and Maintenance Director Jim Kennedy.

Onyx Waste Services operates in 11 U.S. states, parts of Canada and in the Bahamas, operating a fleet of about 1,800 trucks, including 350 recycling collection vehicles. It is part of Onyx North America, which is part of French conglomerate Vivendi Environnement.

Heil, established in 1901, makes front, rear and side loading waste and recycling collection truck bodies. The subsidiary of Dover Industries, Elgin, Ill., has manufacturing plants in Fort Payne, Ala., and Hillend, Scotland, U.K.

Cash’in Recyclables Inc., Nitro, W. Va., has purchased a Badger L75S-2 10/7 model baler from Harris, Peachtree City, Ga. to keep up with its growing business.

In business since 1965, Cash’in was strictly a nonferrous recycling facility until a year and a half ago, when it expanded into the ferrous processing side of the industry. The expansion of its facility has been designed to center on the company’s new Harris Badger.

"We are handling our material today faster and more efficiently with the Harris Badger, but it really is the people at Harris that make it work. Harris cares about our business," says Cash’in owner Frank Baird. All of the balers at Cash’in Recyclables Inc. are Harris models, according to Baird.

The Badger long box (L series) models include an extended charge box. The larger capacity charge box allows more material to be baled with every stroke, according to the company. The L series also includes 60 percent ram penetration, providing greater density and "short" bale capacity. Badgers can be used to process bulk cardboard, solid waste, newspapers, aluminum cans, steel cans, plastic and assorted nonferrous metals. The model is available in six different sizes.