Multimaterial master

With operations in a more rural part of Oregon, Pendleton Sanitary Service Inc. is like a recycling hub in the northeastern part of the state. The business has been in operation since 1981. It provides services to about 30,000 people in the city of Pendleton and the outlying Umatilla County. It also partners with recycling and waste collection companies in neighboring towns to accept recyclable materials.

For nearly two decades, Pendleton Sanitary Service has relied on Bellevue, Ohio-based American Baler’s machines to handle all its baling needs.

Michael McHenry, president of Pendleton Sanitary Service Inc., says the company first decided to use an American Baler machine in 2000 after seeing an installation performed in the Seattle area.

“I had a cousin who was working in the industry in the Seattle area who was putting a new baler in,” McHenry says. “He asked for my help with the installation, and they were installing an American Baler open-end extrusion baler at the time. I had not seen one before that. I saw what it did, how well it worked. That’s what got me hooked—that’s how we ended up buying the first one.”

After seeing that installation, Pendleton Sanitary Service decided to upgrade its baler and install an American Baler 6042WS-10T30 autotie open-end extrusion baler. McHenry says that particular model worked “fantastically” as a paper baler.

However, in the early 2000s, Pendleton Sanitary Service’s material stream began to shift. The company gained a large RV manufacturer customer and as a result the company noticed an increase in nonferrous metals it was handling.

To accommodate the changing material stream, Pendleton Sanitary Service turned again to American Baler in 2010 to replace its 6042WS-10T30 baler with a 5020XP-150 narrow-box two-ram baler. McHenry says American Baler’s 5020XP-150 machine is a “different animal” from the 6042WS-10T30 autotie open-end extrusion baler.

“The other machine made a bale and ejected it out the end with a tying system that was made to tie paper, but this machine ejects the bale at 90 degrees and ties in a completely different manner,” he says.

While the company’s first American Baler machine worked best with baling paper grades, McHenry says the 5020XP-150 has been a great machine for handling a variety of commodities, including nonferrous metals, paper and plastics.

“This is a really good multimaterial machine,” McHenry says.

Adding a baler that could handle multimaterials has helped operations to run much more efficiently, he adds.

“Our tonnage per hour became faster,” he says. “Paper had not increased hugely, but the throughput and tonnage per hour of plastic and nonferrous metals increased tenfold.”

In the past decade, McHenry says the multimaterial baler from American Baler has held up very well. He reports that it has not experienced any major electrical, mechanical or hydraulic failures. He adds that his company is very strict on keeping up with equipment maintenance, so the machine hasn’t had any major jams.

And for the past two decades that Pendleton Sanitary Service has used American Baler machines, McHenry says he has been able to easily connect with that company on any maintenance-related needs.

“If we have any questions or issues, [American Baler] is on the phone immediately with us and they will send us parts overnight,” McHenry says. “They know that downtime for us is a big issue. They are fantastic as far as response.

“Their support is great, and their machines are well put together,” he adds. “They build a quality machine. If we ever replace the [baler] we’ve got now, I wouldn’t go with any other brand.”