Material Handling Guide Supplement -- Welcome

Old Friends and New Servants

Some people can grow very attached to the machines they own or work with.

Logic doesn’t dictate it—a machine can never genuinely return the affection bestowed upon it by a person. But nonetheless, thousands (if not millions) of people own cars, pickup trucks, computers, table saws and any number of other types of machines that they consider to be companions, and with which they’ll carry on one-sided conversations if they are fairly certain no one is watching.

A recent survey of readers conducted by Recycling Today doesn’t indicate whether feelings of friendship between recyclers and the equipment they use occurs infrequently or is widespread. (It does offer a look at many other mobile material handling equipment trends within the industry, some of which are mentioned in the articles that follow.)

But a trip to most scrap yards can leave the visitor with the impression that there are many recyclers who own equipment that they might have grown attached to over the years and that they might just have a name for it, whether it is "Old Reliable" or "Tin Lizzie."

Despite the presence of shop-worn equipment at some facilities, it is also clear that scrap yards are no longer the sole domain of equipment making its last stop before retirement.

Recyclers are buying and leasing new equipment in significant numbers, with some involved in comprehensive purchasing plans covering several facilities.

New scrap handling and wheeled loading machines with complete maintenance programs and extra armor to withstand the scrap yard environment are now as common as aging lattice boom cranes in the scrap recycling industry.

At high-volume MRFs and paper packing plants, fleets of forklift trucks, skid steers and wheeled loaders are scrupulously maintained to make sure they can do their part in maximizing the flow of material into and out of mass-production extrusion balers.

For sentimental types, it is perhaps becoming more difficult to become attached to a favorite piece of equipment, as recyclers shorten the planned life cycles of their material handling machines.

But on the bright side, prudent management of the recycling facility using the most productive material handling equipment could create more free time to spend with a favorite pickup truck, or maybe even a BMW or Mercedes to grow old with together.