Making room for organics

The growth in organics recycling, including food waste, came as no surprise to Phil Allen. The executive vice president of sales and marketing for New Way, a division of Scranton, Iowa-based Scranton Manufacturing, says it is a trend he has been following for the last five years.

As cities and states on the West Coast, and in the Northeast and Canada have begun requiring restaurants, institutions and food manufactures to divert food waste, commercial haulers have noticed some differences in collecting this organic material compared with collecting municipal solid waste (MSW) and recyclables.

“I knew it was coming,” says Allen. “One things I wanted for our company was to be ready and have something purposefully built for the application rather than taking an existing truck and modify it to make it work for the application.”

New Way introduced a fully automated side-loading organics collection truck it calls the Roto Pac to the North American market in July 2014. On display for the first time at Wastecon in Dallas, Aug. 26-28, 2014, this fully automated truck is described by the company as “the first mobile compactor with a leak-proof truck body that packs with the rotary action of an auger instead of a traditional packing panel.”

Allen reports that initial feedback on the new design is positive. “We are starting to see quite a bit of activity,” he says. “Our new truck has really received a lot of good reviews from the moment we’ve had it out showing people.”

The Roto Pac body uses an auger, which Allen describes as a sausage grinder. It is designed to preprocesses the organic material. Other collection trucks are equipped with rams, which are designed for compaction only.

“One of the benefits we think people are going to see is when they take that load to their processing site, the process is already started by running it through the truck and basically having it already shredded up,” Allen explains.

When asked about organics collection trucks at Wastecon, regional managers Bobby Carroll and Kevin Coombes of Cynthiana, Kentucky-based E-Z Pack said handling food waste would require a new truck design. They suggest a truck would need less compaction, a sump to hold liquid and a higher seal.

Organics and food waste collection “is probably the biggest trend we are seeing,” said Carroll.

McNeilus, Dodge Center, Minnesota, is already making modifications to its existing collection trucks to meet the demands of customers wanting to haul organics. Greg McCarty, McNeilus senior program and product manager says,

“Currently our trucks are being modified to handle requests for organics collection and consist of modifications to the tailgate seal or other body areas to help in the containment of liquids that are commonly present with food waste and other organic material.”

McCarty continues, “We also install drains and remote-mounted sumps to allow the majority of liquids to be separated from solid materials and reduce the leakage potential.”
 

Weighty matters

It is no secret to those who handle food waste that it is considerably higher in moisture content and weight than MSW.

Carl Mennie, division manager for Republic Services of Santa Clara County, California, says “wet containers,” or those containing organics, are 60 percent heavier than MSW by pounds per yard.

The containers Republic provides its customers for food waste are also 110 percent heavier than those used for MSW.

Republic uses a universal fleet of 68 front-end loaders for its commercial wet/dry collection routes in San Jose, California, that run on compressed natural gas (CNG). The trucks have Autocar chassis with Heil bodies and are equipped with the Curotto-Can commercial gripper. Mennie explains, “The cart grippers on our front-load trucks allow more flexibility in container sizes that we can offer without adding another truck.”

Mennie says having tailgate seals that are well-maintained are important to prevent liquid from leaking out of the truck. This is especially true on the wet routes. “Garbage trucks have always had the potential to leak,” he says. “It is more pronounced when we collect food waste.

“We try to maintain all the seals in the same quality,” Mennie adds. “That is really what it comes down to. Make sure your trucks don’t leak on the street.”

The same trucks that collect dry material, which includes items such as clean cardboard, paper, glass, carpet, plastics, wood and metal, also can be used to collect wet material, which can include food scraps, soiled paper and cardboard and yard trimmings.

Wet material generally is denser than dry material. “You will max out your weight limit before your yardage limit” when collecting wet material, Mennie says.

He recommends using a truck that can maximize the legal load to limit the number of trips. Republic’s trucks, for instance, have on-board scales to help the driver know when to break off of the route and unload at the processor.

“[Organics] routes are less efficient than MSW routes,” he cautions.

In terms of wear and tear on the truck, Mennie says, “Other than watching the seals, we maintain the trucks with the same program as our MSW trucks. So far we have not noticed a difference in cost per engine hour to maintain.”

Split decisions

Other truck designs also are accommodating organics collection routes. Truck manufacturers McNeilus and Loadmaster, Norway, Michigan, are among the manufacturers that offer split-body rear loaders. This is another way to improve efficiency by accommodating the collection of two material streams on one route.

McNeilus Marketing Representative Kelli Sandhurst says, “We are seeing more interest from customers in trucks that are capable of collecting organics/food waste and recyclables.

“Our split-body rear loader model is a truck that is suited for and used for that purpose because it has two hoppers that allow for dual-stream collection,” she continues. “Also, our manual/automated sideloader is being used more for recyclable pickup."

Because size needs can differ depending on what is being collected, McNeilus’ split-body rear loader is available in 40/60 and 75/25 configurations.

Al Michaud, sales manager for Loadmaster, says he sees plenty of interest in the split-body rear loader in places where compostables are separated from trash.

Loadmaster also makes modifications to trucks collecting organics, such as equipping them with tanks, to keep liquids from spilling onto the road.

“The tanks can be either added to the body or the tailgate (back portion) to accumulate the leachate fluid that is prevalent with organic collection,” Michaud says.

McCarty notes, “How the food waste is loaded into the truck specifically depends on the container that is used to collect the waste.” He says small residential bins can be loaded by hand or through the use of cart tippers mounted to the truck’s hopper. Larger commercial applications might use modified side-load, front-load or rear-load containers.

“Currently, there is no standardized collection container or method that I am aware of,” McCarty says. “Most haulers are adapting trucks and collection containers to meet their needs, but as the trend grows, I am confident that some prevalent collection methods will emerge.”

Meanwhile, Allen appears enthusiastic about the Roto Pac’s introduction to the market. New Way has been conducting various demonstration routes and has met with officials in New York City about potentially employing the new organics collection truck as part of its fleet, noting it can also be used for MSW.

Allen says New Way is prepared for the boom in curbside organics and food waste collection.

“We are excited about the Northeast and Northwest already moving that way, and we have good dealers in those areas to present the Roto Pac to them,” he says.

The author is a managing editor with the Recycling Today Media Group and can be contacted at ksmith@gie.net.