Waste Connections ramps up automation, fire prevention at new Illinois MRF

Waste Connections has prioritized fire safety at its new material recovery facility (MRF) in Plainfield, Illinois, calling the new safety measures “night and day” compared with previous technology.

The newest facility, operated by Elk Grove Village, Illinois-based Groot Industries, which was acquired by Waste Connections in 2017, sits on the site of its predecessor—a system that experienced a total equipment and building loss after a fire in May 2021.

Because MRFs often have high ceilings to account for their systems, fires can smolder in the equipment with flames not high enough to trip ceiling sensors. According to a news release from Norwalk, Connecticut-based Van Dyk Recycling Solutions, the system provider for the Plainfield MRF, the design for the new facility needed to incorporate fire detection at lower heights—closer to the source—to effectively prevent fire damage.

The new Plainfield MRF, located in northern Illinois, now operates with five levels of fire safety and prevention.

Levels 1 and 2 include a traditional combination of local fire extinguisher tanks and an overhead sprinkler system, while Level 3 features units from West Bloomfield, Michigan-based Fire Rover. The Fire Rover units monitor the plant, employing an artificial intelligence-based system to detect smoke and an infrared system to detect high levels of heat. Level 4 includes compressed air foam units housed in all material bunkers—a notorious spot for fires to break out—that can be deployed at the first sign of a fire, spraying foam to suppress smoke and flames before they get out of control. Finally, Level 5 includes an on-site high-capacity water tank with more than 245,000 gallons of water. The tank has 1.5-inch high-temperature rated, fire department-grade hoses attached that run throughout the rails of the plant and on the second-floor mezzanine.

“We used all the latest and greatest technology we could find,” says David Kawa, district manager for Groot Industries.

Waste Connections Director of Recycling Operations Tim Horkay says the cost of the fire prevention systems was “a sizeable investment”—more than 5 percent of the total project cost. The company says, however, that it already has proven to be money well spent, as the system successfully has fought one fire since startup. When flames engulfed both paper bunkers, on-site employees were able to deploy the in-bunker compressed foam units and Waste Connections says the fire was extinguished before the fire department arrived and resulted in no damage to surrounding belts and controls.

Kawa adds that “all hands are on deck” when it comes to monitoring the system for potential incidents.

Floor operators and supervisors roam the floor with tablets, a system he calls “mobile controllability.” The tablets can be used to control material flow, and in the event of a fire, can quickly halt material or send it in the opposite direction to isolate the fire and properly target it with the fire prevention equipment.

“The tablets help us stay dialed in, have eyes on the problem and be able to control things in the moment,” Kawa says.

Waste Connections also says its team put a lot of consideration into the equipment and building design as well as fire prevention strategies to further increase safety for its employees. According to Jerry Evans, the plant’s maintenance manager, noted the facility’s three major operating areas—the tipping floor, the processing area and the bale storage and warehouse—are segregated and walled off to prevent fires from spreading from one area to another.

“Waste Connections has flipped the thinking that people should protect machines,” Evans says. “They’ve designed this system so the machines protect the people.”

The Plainfield MRF features a Günther Splitter screen, eliminating the presort station and allowing the removal of glass and other smaller items, and includes Pellenc optical sorters that have fully automated quality control on the MRF’s fiber and container lines.

According to Van Dyk, the MRF has been able to run up to 37 tons per hour with only four manual sorters.

The company also says the system was designed with features to eliminate downtime and features mid-system accumulation bunkers on the fiber and container lines to prevent jams from causing a full-system stoppage. For example, if a jam occurs on the container line, container sorting can be stopped while the rest of the system continues running; meanwhile, incoming material to the container line will be collected in the accumulation bunker and metered out when the line starts up again.

Finally, the site also has achieved full baler redundancy, with a Bollegraaf HBC120S single-ram baler as well as a two-ram baler, with Van Dyk saying both balers can bale all commodities in the event the other is down.

And while automation and efficiency were major priorities, Waste Connections says it continues to explore emerging fire prevention technologies they can add to future MRF builds to prevent incidents like the devastating fire in 2021.

“Fire safety is a continually working project,” Kawa says. “We will never stop looking for the next best thing.”