Equipment Report

Shred-Tech purchases Axo Shredders

Shred-Tech Corp., Cambridge, Ontario, has announced the acquisition of Axo Shredders. Established in 2000, Axo Shredders manufactures mobile and stationary shredders and recycling systems. The company has operations in the U.K., the U.S. and Thailand.

“The combined Shred-Tech/Axo Group of Cos. enhances our resources and organizational infrastructure in the high-growth markets of the U.K./Europe, Australasia and Japan, enabling us to provide superior service and support to our customers in those regions,” says Shred-Tech President and CEO Rob Glass.

“The addition of Axo’s products in North America will help to round out Shred-Tech’s already substantive product offerings, while Shred-Tech’s North American service infrastructure will ensure Axo’s customers, both past and present, are well-supported with local parts availability and trained factory technicians,” he adds.

“The entire Axo staff and I are excited to now be part of the Shred-Tech team and to be able to draw on greater technical resources to develop new products to better service customers in Asia and other emerging markets,” says AXO President Greg Corrigan.

“I would like to welcome Greg Corrigan and all of the Axo employees worldwide to the Shred-Tech team. Greg is a long-term industry veteran, and we are fortunate Greg will be staying on as head of our combined operations in Asia,” Glass says.

Shred-Tech, founded in 1980, has operations in Cambridge and in Apex, North Carolina.

American Baler adds dealer in the Southeast

Bellevue, Ohio-based American Baler has announced that Recycling Equipment Inc. (REI), Newton, North Carolina, has joined the baler manufacturer’s dealer network.

REI is based in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area and will represent American Baler in east Tennessee, west North Carolina and South Carolina.

Chris Wyatt at REI can be contacted at 704-325-3535.

ZB North America opens US parts and service center

ZB Group, based in Spain, has established a parts and service center to serve clients of its North America division, ZB North America Corp.

ZB mobile hammermill shredder operators in the United States and in Canada now have local service and parts support from a new service center based in Alpharetta, Georgia, near Atlanta. ZB Group’s new service center has the capacity to store a full range of ZB parts and is home base for ZB North America Director Lander Arrieta.

ZB’s Thor mobile units are track-mounted, fully portable shredders that feature remote control and top and bottom discharge.

SSI wins regional export award

Wilsonville, Oregon-based SSI Shredding Systems Inc. has won the Mayor’s Global Leader award, presented during a World Trade Week ceremony hosted by the Oregon Consular Corps. The annual event is designed to recognize companies that make significant contributions to Oregon’s economy through involvement in international trade.

SSI says the award recognizes its growing international business, effective approach to building demand for its products globally and innovative methods of working with overseas partners.

Tom Garnier founded SSI in 1980 in Wilsonville. A combination of factors early on in the development of SSI influenced him to expand into global markets, he says.

In an interview with the Port of Portland, Garnier commented, “We don’t really plan for growth—growth is a byproduct of a job well done. Our goal is to always do the job right, and if the money supports that and follows, then that means we have been successful in our task.”

Recounting part of SSI’s history, Garnier added, “I was very fortunate when I started the company that I met a gentleman from Korea, and he took me on a walk along the Portland waterfront. He explained to me that when you have business outside the U.S., you expand your market share, so you are not totally reliant on the economy in your own country or state. You learn more about what the world’s needs are, so you are not just providing the world’s needs today but you are getting to look at what might be coming down the road.”

Garnier says he sold his first product overseas to Japan in 1987. Because of his time spent in Japan and interaction with manufacturers, he adopted principles from the Japanese manufacturing process that are still used at SSI.

SSI has installed more than 3,000 systems in more than 60 countries. About half of its business is export, the company says.

Garnier says, “We get involved with someone who has a true need. Then we go through the discovery process of finding out what the true need is, and then we get to solve the puzzle and come up with a solution.”

This solutions-based approach with each customer has served SSI well in the international market, according to the firm.

CP Group supplies system to award-winning MRF

For the third consecutive year, the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), Silver Spring, Maryland, has awarded the Gold Excellence Award in the Recycling Systems category to a recycling system developed by San Diego-based CP Group.

Republic Services’ Southern Nevada Recycling Center, North Las Vegas, Nevada, received the 2016 Gold Excellence Award in Recycling Systems. The system features next-generation separation technology designed, manufactured and installed by CP Group.

The 70-ton-per-hour recycling center, which SWANA recognized as “North America’s largest and smartest residential recycling center,” can process 2 million pounds of recyclables daily.

“The new system is a powerhouse,” says CP Group’s Patrick Nicol, lead engineer on the system. “It is a dual-line recovery facility, designed to adapt to the ever-changing recycling stream. We are very proud of our partnership with Republic Services and applaud them for the investments made to advance recycling capabilities.”

“This Gold Award three-peat speaks for itself,” says Terry Schneider, president and CEO of CP Group. “Naturally, we’ve always believed our systems were far ahead of the curve. These awards are confirmation that the recycling industry agrees with us.”

CP Group’s previous award-winning systems include the Dem-Con single-stream system (2015 Gold Award); PVT Land C&D recycling system (2015 Silver Award) and Republic Services’ Dallas/Fort Worth Recycling Center (2014 Gold Award).

The Excellence Awards were presented at SWANA’s annual conference, Wastecon, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2016, in Indianapolis.

The CP Group is made up of CP Manufacturing, Krause Manufacturing, MSS Inc. and Advanced MRF. The company provides a variety of sorting solutions worldwide, including material recovery facility (MRF) manufacturing, retrofits, audits, consulting and engineering services. CP Group designs, installs and services turnkey systems for residential recycling, commercial and industrial recycling, municipal solid waste, engineered fuel, construction and demolition recycling and electronic scrap processing.

World Economic Forum recognizes Wrightspeed

Wrightspeed Inc., an Alameda, California-based manufacturer of range-extended electric vehicle powertrains, has been named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer.

Designed as a replacement for conventional piston engine and transmission systems, Wrightspeed’s Route is a range-extended electric vehicle powertrain that provides unlimited range and dramatic fuel cost reductions for today’s refuse, delivery and mass transit markets.

Wrightspeed was chosen by a professional jury among hundreds of candidates as one of the 30 selected companies. Thanks to its selection, the company says it will have access to an influential and sought-after business and political network worldwide. Ian Wright, CEO and founder of Wrightspeed, participated in the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, People’s Republic of China, June 26-28. Additionally, many Technology Pioneers will participate in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2017, Jan. 17-20, in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland.

“We welcome Wrightspeed in this group of extraordinary pioneers,” says Fulvia Montresor, head of Technology Pioneers at the World Economic Forum. “Wrightspeed is among those companies that are shaping the fourth Industrial Revolution, a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work and relate to one another. Through the platform of the World Economic Forum, it will be able to scale and share its technology and achieve a larger impact.”

Wright says, “We are honored to be recognized by the World Economic Forum as one of the world’s most innovative companies. At Wrightspeed, we’re dedicated to achieving efficiency without compromising performance. This award affirms the efficacy of our approach to improving the performance and operations of our cities’ most demanding vehicles, and we’re proud to know the world’s leading economic thinkers are aligned with our vision.”

As in previous years, American-based entrepreneurs continue to dominate the list of Technology Pioneers, with 22 out of 30 recipients. Other selected pioneers come from France (2), Luxembourg (2), Canada, Israel, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The Technology Pioneers are mostly active in IT, health, food, energy, environment, financial services and production.

The Technology Pioneers were selected by a committee of 68 academics, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and corporate executives from among hundreds of applicants. The committee based its decisions on criteria that included innovation, potential impact, working prototype, viability and leadership, the World Economic Forum says.

Past World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers include Google (2001), Wikimedia (2007), Mozilla (2007), Kickstarter (2011) and Airbnb (2013). More information on these and other past winners can be found at http://bit.ly/291EpUc.

Miami Waste Paper celebrates one year with its Imabe baler

Cesar Benitez, CEO of Imabe of America, Miami, has shared a letter with Recycling Today from Ron Novas, executive vice president of Miami Waste Paper, also based in Miami, that highlights the benefits the company has seen since installing an Imabe H-240-3000 single-ram baler one year ago.

Novas writes, “We have put approximately 75,000 tons of OCC (old corrugated containers) through the baler with minimal problems and minimal repairs and maintenance.” He adds that the baler is performing as promised, “easily averaging 30 tons per hour.”

Novas writes that Miami Waste Paper was “anxious about installing a new single-ram baler, as we had always operating three big two-ram balers.” However, he states, “We quickly realized that the speed and saving of the new baler were real and immediate.”

Novas notes some production gains the company has seen in the last year, including a 21 percent reduction in baling wire costs; a more than 60 percent reduction in baler repair and maintenance costs; and a 15 percent reduction in electrical costs.

US Shredder and Castings Group opens South Carolina sales office

The U.S. Shredder and Castings Group, Miramar Beach, Florida, has opened a new sales office in Lake City, South Carolina. Systems Manager Ryan Njavro (ryan@usshredder.com) and account managers Drew Tigner (drew@usshredder.com) and Gretchen Njavro (gretchen@usshredder.com) are based at this location.

President Bill Tigner says, “Lake City offers us a great central East Coast location to expand our growing customer service capabilities, especially for castings and wear parts. In the future, we plan to expand the location to include a warehouse for our East Coast inventory of wear parts, as well.”

The site can perform some light fabrication work and is home base for U.S. Shredder’s sister company, A Fines Solutions, which supplies nonferrous equipment to operations using a profit-sharing model.

The company, which offers shredders, control systems, downstream systems, nonferrous recovery systems and air systems, as well as shredder castings, service, engineering, construction and installation, says it will maintain its headquarters in Miramar Beach and its business office in Peoria, Illinois.