Active Marketplace

Business owners and plant managers in the market for balers, material handlers, conveying systems and other types of recycling equipment found much to choose from at WasteExpo ’99.

The solid waste industry’s largest trade show has long attracted recycling equipment makers as exhibitors and MRF (material recovery facility) operators and other recyclers as attendees.

The recycling industry’s presence was again strong at this year’s show, where recyclers dominated the educational agenda on two of the show’s days, and recycling equipment was visible on several portions of the WasteExpo floor.

WELL EQUIPPED

Nearly all the space in the Texas-sized Dallas Convention Center was used to display waste handling and recycling equipment.

Among the innovative pieces of equipment on display was a rubber-tipped grapple from Pemberton, Longwood, Fla. The attachment is being marketed to waste transfer stations and mixed waste processing facilities (MWPFs). Sales representative Luke Pemberton and Darren Reeves, a Pemberton product specialist, have been pleased with the market’s reaction to the product, which is designed to prevent cracks on concrete tipping floors.

Baler, shredder, screening system and wear parts vendors all had products on display for attendees to inspect. Vendors had various opinions regarding the state of the recycling equipment industry.

One officer with a baler manufacturing firm remarked that the glut of used equipment on the market has made it extremely difficult to sell new balers. “People just aren’t paying for new equipment when they can choose from a wide variety of used equipment on the market and usually find the model they’re looking for.”

Other equipment makers, however, were indeed finding markets for their equipment. Mike Hinsey of Granutech Saturn Systems, Grand Prairie, Texas, noted that three of the company’s shear shredders had been sold to the Evergreen nylon carpet recycling facility that has been established in Augusta, Ga.

Tim Griffing of Erin Systems Inc., Portland, Maine, is responsible for sales of that company’s finger screening and other equipment into the construction and demolition (C&D) recycling market. He said interest and sales have been strong in the first half of 1999 in the C&D segment, as did several other equipment makers who sell into the C&D recycling industry.

The WasteExpo exhibit floor itself was viewed positively as a sales lead generator by most exhibitors, though some noted that the flow of floor traffic seemed lighter than last year’s WasteExpo in Chicago.

“As an exhibitor I thought it was very good,” Anthony DiIenno of Euro-Fibres Inc., Glen Mills, Pa., said of WasteExpo ’99.

Floor traffic was strongest during the first day or two of the show, DiIenno believed. “I thought the beginning of the show was the strongest and it sort of tailed off from there.”

The show was encouraging enough that Euro-Fibres will be back as an exhibitor next year. “We’ll be in Atlanta,” noted DiIenno.

Ron Estilow, a procurement representative with Rock-Tenn Recycling, Dallas, was similarly pleased with floor traffic and contacts made at the show. “I thought it went real well,” said Estilow of the show.

He said he had many beneficial conversations with “recyclers and people that were seeing if I could move some paper for them.”

According to Jackie Wolf of the Environmental Industries Association (EIA), Washington, the organizers of WasteExpo ’99, 442 exhibitors rented booth space at the show, covering more than 223,000 square feet of exhibit space.

INFORMATION GATHERING

The expo floor may be where much of the action is at WasteExpo, but it is not the only attraction at the annual event.

Sessions within several different “tracks” or categories were held in Dallas, including some dealing with recycling topics.

The C&D recycling industry received some attention on Tuesday, including a presentation from U.S. EPA regional officer Paul Ruesch. Ruesch, based in the EPA’s Chicago office, has built a reputation as a bridge between recyclers in the field and EPA policy makers in Washington.

Along with trade groups such as the Construction Materials Recycling Association, Lisle, Ill., and the National Association of Demolition Contractors, Doylestown, Pa., Ruesch has helped the EPA hear the complaints of C&D recyclers who fear lead-based paint disposal guidelines proposed by the EPA could grind their industry to a halt.

“One could read that proposal and conclude that it leaves out recycling as a viable option for concrete, wood and shingles,” noted Ruesch.

He added that the complaints of C&D recyclers have been heard, and believes there is a possibility the proposal could be quietly shelved. “My own opinion . . . is that this rule will be a long time in coming,” said Ruesch. “Anything that meets this level of political opposition or proves extremely unpopular, the EPA tends to sit on,” he commented.

ATLANTA HOSTS IN 2000

When WasteExpo 2000 opens May 15 to May 18 in Atlanta next year, there may be some differences apparent to both exhibitors and attendees.

In early 1999, trade publishing company Primedia Inc., New York City, purchased WasteExpo from the EIA. The EIA will retain a sponsorship status for the show, but it will be managed by Intertec Exhibitions, Primedia’s trade show division.

Sidebar

ITRA TAKES THE STAGE IN NASHVILLE

While many recyclers gathered in Dallas for WasteExpo the week of June 7, during the same week Nashville was the site of another trade show on the calendars of many in the recycling industry.

The International Tire and Rubber Association (ITRA), Louisville, Ky.,  consists of participants in the tire retreading industry as well as scrap tire recyclers. While some recyclers may have split their time during the week between the two shows, the healthy attendance evident at the ITRA show in Nashville indicated that a decent number of tire recyclers found their way to the Music City.

The Opryland Hotel Convention Center served as the site of the three-day ITRA event, where tire recycling equipment companies and other exhibitors put their wares on display for tire recyclers.

Equipment vendors and tire recyclers both expressed mixed feelings over the state of the scrap tire recycling industry. Veteran tire recyclers have lived through a difficult market in the 1990s, when some false expectations may have been established and then brought down regarding some of the end markets for scrap tires.

What cannot be denied is that the disposal of scrap tires remains a nationwide issue, and municipal solid waste coordinators would rather not see tires entering the landfill. As long as tires keep becoming obsolete, recyclers will work to create larger end markets for the crumb rubber and other materials that can be culled from scrap tires.