Recycling's New Breed

If you are looking for a long scrap and recycling tradition with Sunshine Recycling, you’ve come to the wrong place. If you expect to find the company’s CEO Joe Rich sitting behind a fancy desk in the office, think again. For those who thought Rich foolhardy and predicted a short life cycle for the business because he installed water-oil separators even before having a pallet jack to support operations, they’re dead wrong.

In business since 1996, Sunshine Recycling LLC, Orangeburg, S.C., has grown from a meager business, taking in less than $200,000 in sales the first year, to one of the region’s most successful scrap and recycling centers today. Once covering a mere 6.9 acres, today the company’s operations encompass 52 acres and include the additional businesses of Sunshine Auto Salvage LLC and Sunshine Steel & Supply LLC.

Rich did not follow a typical path into the scrap industry. He started in the construction trade and says he feels more comfortable behind the controls of his Terex Fuchs material handler than behind a desk. When he had an idea to open a scrap operation in the mid-1990s while in his 20s, he knew little about the business. “My partner who knew the business didn’t work out,” explains Rich. “When we opened, I didn’t know the difference between metals.”

The one thing he had, however, was determination to see Sunshine Recycling succeed.

TRUE TO THE CORE

Rich started Sunshine with a backhoe loader, dump truck and a set of core beliefs that would guide the fledgling business. He says he feels strongly that the company should do its part to protect the environment. Sunshine Recycling’s values include being easy to do business with and developing partnerships with the company’s suppliers and those companies to which Sunshine supplies scrap materials.

At the same time Rich was sorting No. 1 and No. 2 heavy melting steel in the bucket of his backhoe, he was also installing water-oil separators on the property. “Other scrap operations questioned the wisdom of installing the separators before I had a pallet jack or a material handler,” recalls Rich. “But the environment is of great concern, and the oil that leaks from old machines, cars and trucks being recycled concerned me.”

While ridiculed by some, this effort was noticed and appreciated by the adjoining landowner. As Sunshine’s business grew and expansion became necessary, that adjoining property owner sold Sunshine the land at below market value.

Today, Sunshine accepts ferrous and nonferrous material from a broad customer base ranging from private industries to municipalities to walk-in citizens from Orangeburg and the surrounding communities. Because of his unique background, Rich says he has a firm commitment to the walk-in customers.

“Sunshine tries to make it as fast and easy as possible for customers to recycle materials,” says Dick Mizzell, territory manager for Carroll, Ohio-based Company Wrench, the Terex Fuchs dealer servicing Sunshine. “The company even constructed a drive-through recycling center.”

After driving over the scales, customers recycling aluminum, copper, brass and stainless steel materials drive directly into the facility. Without getting out of the vehicle, the customer’s material is unloaded by Sunshine employees and is immediately sent to a baler.

While convenient for the customer, it is also a model of efficiency. “Double handling is a no-no in our business,” says Rich. “We have seven balers on site to handle the inflow of materials.” By quickly taking care of the customer, Sunshine’s daily walk-in/drive-in business has experienced phenomenal growth throughout the years.

To get the most out of the business, Rich strives to forge deep partnerships. Before his company began shipping material to steel mills, he first briefly worked, without salary, at a mill. “This allowed us to get a sense of what the mills need,” explains Rich. Today, shipping to mills in a seven-state region, Sunshine has yet to have a shipment rejected for quality purposes, according to Rich. The company says it receives top dollar for its product.

Building partnerships with equipment manufacturers also has been part of Sunshine’s phenomenal growth into a multi-million dollar operation, as well. From the school of hard knocks, the metals processor has learned the value of a dependable piece of equipment and, when there is a problem with the equipment, the benefit of quick service support.

“Recycling companies operate on tight margins, and you must have a consistent cost-per-ton to operate the equipment and know what that cost is,” says Rich. “This is why I am so appreciative of the relationship we have built with Terex Fuchs and Company Wrench for the material handlers. They treat us more like a partner than a customer.”

HEART AND SOUL

For Sunshine, the entire operation revolves around its material handlers. The first “material handler” the company purchased was a used, converted Drott crane with an elevated cab. The company used this machine for two years before it broke down and was cut up for scrap.

Throughout Sunshine’s first 10 years, the company experimented with different types of excavators and material handlers, achieving varying degrees of success. Rich says he was looking for a handler that would help boost efficiencies and encourage growth.

In 2005, Sunshine tested two different material handler brands side by side—one being a Terex Fuchs—to compare the units’ efficiency and productivity. “It was a night-and-day difference between the two designs,” says Rich. “For one, the pick chart for the other handler was overstated. The hydraulic cylinders shook and the lines jumped well before it reached chart lift capacity,” he says.

The company’s operational efficiency also was improved with the Terex Fuchs machine, according to Rich. Previous modified excavators and handlers used by the company took as long as 45 minutes to load an 80-yard trailer. Using the Terex Fuchs MHL360 D, operators have reduced the time it takes to complete this task down to less than 10 minutes.

“With the MHL360, I get speed, mobility, picking strength and efficiency,” says Rich. “Both excavators and the material handler are purpose-built. Excavators are built to dig, and the Terex Fuchs is built for recycling operations.”

Currently, Sunshine has four Terex Fuchs MHL360s and one MHL350 D at the Southland Road location. The company runs them hard, averaging 4,000 hours on each machine every year, according to Rich. The company still operates its first MHL360 C and has logged more than 11,000 operating hours on it. Sunshine’s operators have put more than 1,000 hours on the newest handlers within the first three months.

The 101,000-pound MHL360 D material handler gives Sunshine a 59-foot reach and a 20-foot operator eye-level to maximize scrap handling and productivity. “Prior to the Terex Fuchs handlers, Sunshine ran only track machines, and the operators were initially concerned about lift stability,” says Mizzell. “However, they soon discovered that the tire machine was actually more stable on picks, especially those to the machine’s side.”

Each handler is equipped with Terex Fuchs five-tine grapple—0.8 cubic yard for the MHL350 D and 1 cubic yard for the MHL360s.

Rich says Sunshine’s operators have done everything from “walking” the handler carrying a 40-foot long, multi-ton rail car center cell to delicately removing materials from truck beds. Using only the material handler equipped with a five-tine grapple, operators completely strip cars and trucks of all their components, including radiators, wire harnesses, transmissions, engines, heater cores and catalytic converters in a matter of minutes, according to the company.

Sunshine Recycling also has expanded its business practices beyond the Southland Road facility by using the Terex Fuchs handlers. The company periodically mobilizes them for on-site demolition work. Transported in one piece, it costs the company only a $10 permit to move a handler to a job site in South Carolina.

Rich recalls working on a recent power plant job. “We were given eight weeks to do the job, and we had it done in four days by using the Terex Fuchs handlers.”

GOOD SERVICE

As hard as Sunshine works the handlers, the company says it believes in a strong service program to keep these machines running efficiently. “Cash flow is critical, and when a machine is down, no cash is flowing,” says Rich.

Sunshine is diligent with daily maintenance routines and has a service contract with Company Wrench. “This gives Sunshine a second set of eyes to make sure the equipment runs efficiently,” Mizzell says. “Sunshine’s dedication to service is the main reason why the machines don’t leak fluids, and you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the 11,000-hour and 1,000-hour machines,” he adds.

As Rich has learned during the last two turbulent years, efficiency is the key to succeeding in a down market. “You must control the controllables—productivity, costs and efficiency—in order to take advantage of the market swings,” concludes Rich.

This article was submitted on behalf of Terex Fuchs, Southaven, Miss., www.terex.com.