MRFs Seek Efficiency

How many material recovery facilities are there in the United States? Where are they located? What do they process? These are the types of questions that Governmental Advisory Associates Inc., Westport, Conn., a consulting and research firm, asks when compiling its periodic national survey of MRFs and mixed waste processing facilities in the U.S. The firm recently completed an update of the full study, titled The Materials Recycling and Processing Industry in the United States: 1995-96 Yearbook, Atlas and Directory, which was originally published in 1995.

This update covers new projects, as well as significant upgrades, which have occurred since the publication of the 1995-96 Yearbook. Trends discussed here concern only new facilities, not major upgrades.

The earlier survey reflected the economic and political optimism for materials recovery that existed through mid-1995. Prices for old newspaper, old corrugated cardboard and mixed papers reached historic highs in June/July 1995, with No. 8 ONP topping out at $200 a ton, OCC at about $190 a ton and mixed paper at $120 a ton.

At these prices, many MRFs and mixed waste processing facilities showed earnings from the sale of materials. Public policy interests – which had been aggressively promoting recycling – and economic interests came together, and the MRF industry exploded. Emphasis was put on building more processing capacity to capture high valued material.

As of 1995, there were approximately 390 projects processing residential and commercial recyclables, with many local governments and firms planning to install some type of waste processing facility.

By the beginning of 1996, with the collapse of the paper markets to the range of negative pricing to $40 per ton, the seemingly limitless growth of the recycling facilities had slowed considerably. Construction plans had been abandoned, modified or put on hold.

In its current update, GAA identified 47 new projects. Of these 47, 35 are MRFs handling commingled residential and commercial recyclables or commingled paper, and 12 are mixed waste processing facilities.

As Figure 1 shows, the number of projects increased dramatically from 1991 to 1995, but this rate of increase has dropped precipitously between 1195 and 1997. While the number of projects documented in 1995 represented a 50 percent increase over 1993, the 47 projects show only a 12 percent increase over the number planned or operating in 1995.

This rate of increase will probably remain or slow even further in the near future. The thrust of large private sector waste management firms has been to consolidate MRF operations, closing marginally profitable facilities. Some localities have slowed down plans to move on public procurements, citing poor market conditions.

The current state of the market for recovered materials have forced both private industry and the public sector to focus on achieving operating efficiencies at their facilities. Several major trends have emerged from the 1997 update, which reflect this fact. First and foremost, MRFs or mixed waste facilities are being viewed as part of and integrated solid waste management system. This development is specifically manifested in three major trends.

First, in some cases, facility design is tied to waste collection procedures. Some of the newest MRF designs are based on a single stream or blue bag system, in order to reduce recyclable collection costs. Secondly, in other cases, facilities are being co-located with transfer stations, landfills or composting facilities in order to achieve processing economies.

And finally, there is renewed interest in mixed waste processing facilities, or hybrids where there is processing of both clean recyclables and mixed waste. Out of the 47 new facilities, 14 are hybrids or mixed waste plants. In the 1995-96 Yearbook, 13 percent of the 386 projects were mixed waste plants. In this latest survey, this number has increased to 30 mixed waste plants or hybrids.

A second major trend is that facilities are taking a hard look at the materials that they process, striving to achieve a high quality recovered stream. In some cases, separate paper MRFs have been established. In part, this reflects optimism from 1995 with respect to revenues from recycled paper, but it also reflects the notion that separating high quality streams from more contaminated commingled containers will result in greater access to tighter markets. There is also increased reliance on automation to separate the fiber stream.

In addition, much attention is being devoted to the problematic glass stream, with its high processing cost and low market value. Some MRFs are investing in equipment to achieve better color separation and to reduce unusable residue, while others are searching for alternative uses. Others have dropped glass from curbside collection.

Figure 2 illustrates the changes in regional distribution of MRFs and MWPFs since 1991. Most dramatically, from early dominance of the Northeast, the 1995-96 Yearbook found that facilities were nearly equally distributed across the U.S., according to standard U.S. Census regions. About 26 percent of the 386 total projects were located in the Northeast, 26 percent in the Midwest, 25 percent in the South and 23 percent in the West.

This distribution reflected that recycling had become a nationwide phenomenon, with curbside collection programs being implemented across the country. This finding was in contrast to previous GAA studies in 1991 and 1993, in which the Northeast had nearly 50 percent of all the projects.

As of 1997, among the 47 new facilities, 30 percent are in the Northeast, 30 percent are in the South, 25 percent are in the West and 15 percent are in the Midwest. While the Northeast is again more dominant, a second trend is the increase in the proportion of projects in the South and West, areas of the country showing the greatest population growth.

A mixed waste processing facility has been an attractive option, since it does not require any major changes in collection arrangements and can be sited with transfer stations or landfills.

In the West, haulers and local governments have frequently relied on mixed waste facilities, which can handle large quantities of waste from residential and commercial haulers. In addition, California is among the leaders in aggressively promoting the construction of recycling facilities through its state bonding programs and market development initiatives.

Certain areas of the Midwest have exhibited caution in facility planning.

The average new MRFs has a capacity of 78 tons per day. This excludes mixed waste projects, which by definition are much larger, handling on average more than 600 tons per day. This is smaller than the 116 tons per day reported in 1995. Sixty-four percent of the 37 MRFs have a capacity of 75 tons per day or less, while in 1995 this percentage was 55 percent.

MRFs employ a spectrum of high-tech and low-tech processing approaches. Equipment most commonly used includes conveyors, balers and magnetic separators, comprising the low-tech category. Facilities using additional types of separation technology, such as eddy current separators, air classifiers, trommels and disk screens, fall into the higher technology category.

In both 1993 and 1995, between 63 percent and 65 percent of the projects relied on low-tech, labor-intensive designs. Of the 35 new MRFs contacted in 1997, 57 percent were using additional separation technologies, thereby falling into the more automated category. Further, several existing MRFs were becoming more automated.

There may be several explanations for this increase in the proportion of MRFs using greater automation. First is the emergence among MRFs of hybrid facilities, which may require a greater degree of automated sorting equipment. Second, among the 35 projects, several had been procured during prior years, when investment in high-tech MRFs was considered a forward-thinking project. And finally, investment in capital may be less costly than investment in labor.

As of 1995, the private sector dominated the MRF and MWPF industry, with 66 percent of the MRFs owned and 80 percent operated by private firms. MWPFs presented a similar picture. Of the new projects surveyed, the public sector owns about 44 percent of the MRFs and 67 percent of the mixed waste plants. With respect to operation, private firms operate the preponderance of MRFs, again about 80 percent; however, among the 12 new mixed waste facilities, five are operated by the public sector.