New Equipment Improves Recovery of Aluminum, PET, and Organics
Sunnyvale, CA—Bay Counties Waste Services (BCWS) of Sunnyvale, CA, retrofitted the Sunnyvale Materials Recovery and Transfer (SMaRT) Station’s MSW system. The MRF was originally installed in 2009 and the retrofit was completed in May, 2015. The retrofit and phased installation took 6 weeks and was completed by equipment manufacturer, CP Group, of San Diego, CA.
The system currently receives approximately 760 tons of MSW, 126 tons of green waste, and 82 tons of residential curbside material per day. BCWS’s retrofit objective was to increase recovery of containers.
“The retrofitted system has increased our recovery rates dramatically for all of our commodities while maintaining our material quality,” says Jeff Nabhan, Facilities Manager for BCWS at the SMaRT Station®.
The results of the retrofit consist of a 65% increase in recovery of organics, 98.8% recovery of previously missed aluminum cans, and 97.9% recovery of previously missed PET.
“Major retrofits are often more complex than new projects, clients place a lot of trust in us to get their system running with as little downtime possible,” says Omneya Salem, Senior Manager of Project Management and Engineering, CP Group. “Considering material recovery goals are critical to a client’s economic pro-forma projections, Bay Counties placed a lot of trust in CP’s approach. I’m happy to be part of the team that met and exceeded those initial client expectations,” Salem continues.
The system retrofit consisted of the installation of 2 new CPScreens on the MSW line for the separation of 2D paper, films, and residue from 3D containers and bulky waste. A new MSS CIRRUS optical sorter was installed on the container line for the identification and recovery of PET, HDPE, and other 3 -7 material. The operations interface was improved, and the new CPScreens integrated with the existing MSW line. All new controls were implemented on the container line by CP Group’s electrical division, Advanced MRF.
“I don’t think we could have partnered with a better company to complete our retrofit,” says Nabhan. “From the initial planning, to the final testing, CP offered a complete solution to every issue we had. They came up with new ideas that we hadn’t thought of to improve our system. Hopefully we will get the chance to work with CP in the future with more expansions.”
About Bay Counties Waste Services
BCWS is a fourth generation family owned business. BCWS collects Sunnyvale’s residential and commercial garbage, recyclables, green waste, and organics under an exclusive collection franchise agreement with the City of Sunnyvale Under a separate contract with the City, the company operates the City-owned SMaRT Station, where it processes residential and commercial garbage, recyclables, green waste, and organics from the cities of Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale, CA. The SMaRT Station receives from the three cities the garbage, source-separated recyclables and yard trimmings collected from approximately 63,000 residential addresses, 49,000 multi-family addresses, and 5,500 commercial addresses, totaling an estimated 280,000 people. All collection vehicles in Sunnyvale run on Compressed Natural Gas. Currently the owners of BCWS operate 4 MRFs and are involved in the collection of material from 13 cities, including the SFO airport and Levi’s Stadium.
About CP Group
The CP Group of Companies is a team of professionals that provide solutions for the waste, recycling, and renewable energy industries. CP Group engineers, manufactures, installs, and services Material Recovery Facilities worldwide for a variety of sectors. Custom turn-key systems for residential recycling, commercial and industrial, municipal solid waste, engineered fuel, construction and demolition, and electronic waste processing are designed, installed and serviced by the Group. CP Group engineers and manufactures conveyors, disc screens, air separation machines, trommels, optical sorters, magnets, and intelligent motor control and data acquisition systems. CP Group, headquartered in San Diego, CA, is comprised of CP Manufacturing, Krause Manufacturing, MSS, and Advanced MRF.
