Kadant PAAL Konti X500 prevents baler bottlenecks

When RePower South opened the Berkeley County Recycling and Recovery Facility in 2019 in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, the priority was to provide a comprehensive and cost-effective recycling program for a community that previously had few programs in place.

Founded in 2013, Charleston, South Carolina-based RePower South had seen steady growth since opening its first facility in Montgomery, Alabama, and knew it needed equipment capable of handling the increased volume it was seeing.

“We have been constantly increasing the volume coming in and the volume of commodities we’re shipping out year by year,” Berkeley County Plant Manager Greg Smith says.

According to Smith, that ongoing growth prompted the need for a baler that could handle the nearly 500 tons per day of municipal solid waste and 9 to 10 tons per day of single-stream material from commercial customers that come to the Berkeley County facility.

Smith says RePower wanted a baler that was easy to maintain, could run up to 24 hours a day with minimal operator support and be able to handle various commodities, including high-density polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate, mixed paper and old corrugated containers, as well as aluminum cans.

RePower South partnered with Eugene, Oregon-based Bulk Handling Systems (BHS) when searching for a new baler, and, ultimately, chose a Kadant PAAL Konti X500 for its ability to achieve high throughput and high bale weights with low energy consumption.

“Kadant PAAL [was] there hand-in-hand with us the whole time, optimizing the recipes and fine-tuning [the baler] to meet our expectations,” Smith says.

Smith says the baler has been seamlessly integrated into RePower’s operations and runs about 16 to 18 hours a day, adding that the baler has never caused a bottleneck in the plant and, in fact, has increased productivity and efficiency.

“No matter what commodity goes through it, it comes out really neat, square [and] perfectly tied and gets to go to the last process of the warehouse without having to come back and do it again,” he says.

While the baler has needed little maintenance since its installation in 2019, Smith says Kadant PAAL’s commitment to service has stood out, noting the company has been a phone call away to address any issues that have come up.

“As far as the service with Kadant PAAL [and] the response time, we couldn’t be happier,” Smith says. “They’ve been very helpful, very responsive—one phone call away. One ability I particularly like is their capability to remotely to log into our system wherever they are and help us to diagnose any issues even if they’re not on-site. Nine times out of 10, they’re able to log in and walk us through what’s going on.”

RePower’s goal is to add several more recycling facilities, and, after employing the Konti X500, Smith says there has been no discussion about moving away from Kadant PAAL for its future baler needs.

“We highly recommend [the Konti X500] for the low maintenance and the ease of the instruction that comes with it and the service provided if you do run into a problem,” Smith says. “You have the help that you need when you run into areas where you’re not quite sure what to do. It’s a phone call away and Kadant PAAL can walk us through the process, and that’s been very helpful in maintaining our uptime.”

More information on the Konti X500 and other Kadant PAAL balers can be found at www.kadantPAAL.com/en-us/products.