Odds-On Favorite

T hose familiar with the industry will attest that scrap metal recycling is, by nature, an extremely challenging undertaking. The number of variables that can come into play—pricing, changing markets, mechanical issues, personnel matters, weather, etc.—is endless and can upset even the best-laid plans.

Given that, it is particularly impressive that a firm can establish itself in an area whose economy is built on service-based industries and grow for nearly a quarter century into one of the region’s premier scrap recycling sites. Yet that is exactly what Silver Dollar Recycling has done.

Today, the North Las Vegas operation processes more than 700 tons of ferrous metals each day, bales and ships a host of other nonferrous materials and, with the addition of newer, more productive equipment, is poised for steady growth.

Nonferrous Strategy. In many ways, Silver Dollar’s scrap recycling operation mirrors that of many other processors at work today. Unlike most processors, however, the company has a separate, dedicated location where it processes all nonferrous materials (as well as some OCC).

Currently, this portion of the operation recycles no fewer than 30 grades of copper, aluminum and wire. Material is separated by grades, baled in one of two Harris HRB balers and shipped for reprocessing.

"Our nonferrous area is a steady producer for us," says Bob Friedman, Silver Dollar’s president. "Material such as UBCs, wire—both loose and spooled—from contracts we have with area utilities, even a steady flow of white goods, have kept this facet of the operation humming," he remarks.

"While it’s nowhere near as impressive as what happens on the ferrous side of things, there’s no mistaking the value our nonferrous line has for us," says Friedman. "Part of our business strategy has always been to try to insulate ourselves as much as possible from serious market downturns. The nonferrous operation has already proven it can help do that for us."

New System Needed. The impressive ferrous operation to which Friedman refers includes the company’s new 4,000 hp shredder and processing system, which became fully operational in March of 2003. Prior to that, Silver Dollar had relied on an aging, lower horsepower shredder that, Jim Brewer, the company’s chief operating officer, says was becoming increasingly expensive to maintain.

"The unit we had been using had been in service for more than 25 years and had done a good job for us in that time," he says. "However, upkeep was becoming an issue and we knew that, in order to increase productivity—which we were looking to do—we would need a larger, more efficient shredding system. The decision was more or less made for us when the motor on the existing shredder finally went down. We knew we could either dump more money into that unit or move on. We chose to make the move to a new system."

Brewer says Silver Dollar looked at everything available and, based in part on the level of satisfaction they had with the Harris-made balers in the nonferrous yard, chose to go with the Model HS 98115 shredder made by Harris Waste Management, Peachtree City, Ga.

Growing Pains. Moving from its existing shredder to a new, larger system was a smooth process, though not without its challenges, says Brewer.

"This was a major undertaking, given that we were going from a unit with an 80-inch rotor to one with a 98-inch component," he remarks. "In a sense, everything had to be scaled up and that included having to increase our foundation size. While all this was happening, we still had to try to continue on as a scrap processing operation. So, in the interim, we were baling and shipping all our material. We also stockpiled a good deal of material—about 30,000 tons of bales and car bodies. We had car bodies on this site, some in Arizona, some in California. The logistics of running Silver Dollar during that period was a challenge, to say the least."

Sitting on that much material can be nerve-wracking, particularly with market prices fluctuating at a volatile pace. However, Brewer says the gods of recycling were apparently smiling down upon the company. "We couldn’t have asked for a better scenario," he says. "We had that immense stockpile and by the time we were ready to go online with the new system, the market went up."

Power Surge. Silver Dollar’s demands of its new shredder were simple and straightforward: It wanted a unit that provided power, ease of operation and an ability to hold up over the long haul. Brewer has been satisfied on all fronts.

"The power of the new shredder is a given. Because of its size, it is twice as powerful as what we had before, so the upturn in production has been impressive. We have been averaging 700 tons per day with regular throughputs of 80 tons per hour since the shredder was installed almost two years ago. On several occasions, we’ve peaked it at 145 tph and have run consistently for a while at 125. But we find that at 80 tph we can pull a good strong 5 percent of the nonferrous metals out as residue. In many other areas of the country, that number could be offset simply by increasing tonnage, but here in the desert we are only capable of buying so much scrap, so keeping throughputs at 80 tph seems the best overall solution."

Brewer admits Silver Dollar grossly underestimated the electrical power demands of the unit and initially had to run the shredder at half power until the local substation could be upgraded to handle it. Even with that change, Silver Dollar shreds only at night June through September as a way of easing the power drain on the area.

Brewer says the Harris unit surpasses his expectations in terms of ease of use. The PLC-driven controls are, he says, extremely intuitive and easily understood.

"When we upgraded to this shredder, we made it a point to hire operators who had no previous experience operating a machine like this. The last thing we needed was to be breaking anyone of some old and, perhaps, bad habits. The personnel we brought on board were up to speed in no time and have been some of the best I’ve seen. That’s attributable to their skill of course, but it also says a lot about the unit’s design."

Silver Dollar is poised to process more material than at any other point in its history, and Brewer attributes much of that success to solid leadership and wise business decisions, particularly with regard to equipment purchases.

"We weathered some tough times in the past largely by having people who know and understand the market," he says. "That leadership and the new system we have in place will allow us to move forth and handle any increase in production as we see fit."