News
Arizona Facility Deploys Leading-Edge Optical Sorting Technology
April 17, 2008
April 17, 2008: Hudson Baylor Corporation is excited to announce the successful startup of its newest recycling technology investment. HBC has completed the installation of TiTech optical sorting technology at its River Recycling facility in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The TiTech optical sorting units serve two functions: to separate PET plastics from the commingled container stream, and also to separate containers, cardboard, and chipboard from newsprint. Hudson Baylor invested approximately $1.5 million in this retrofit, and has already started seeing the benefits. According to Tim Flanagan, VP of Operations who oversaw the installation, “Efficiency is improved; throughput is at or higher than pre-retrofit levels; and quality is up, as the optical sorting units are able to consistently eject all of the proper material out of the newspaper stream.” Tom Van Tassel, HBC’s Arizona Area Manager, says “a big benefit is the reliability of the system - from the start through the end of every shift, we get the same production rates.” Since the startup of these units, HBC has not sold any mixed paper out of its River Recycling facility, as all material is now clean enough to sell as #7 newsprint. HBC and the equipment vendors, Van Dyk Baler & Titech , believe that the implementation of the TiTech units on the paper lines are a first in a West Coast single stream recycling facility to sort bottles and cans, as well as other fiber outthrows, out of the newspaper. Both HBC and Van Dyk believe that this state-of-the-art technology will quickly become the standard for new MRF installations across the country.
Optical sorting technology has been around for many years in the plastic recycling business and several other post industrial applications. Over the last 5 Years major technical advances in the Titech optical sensors have enabled successful applications in the “dirty” post consumer recycling as well as Mixed Solid Waste applications. Van Dyk Baler indicates that over the last 4 years alone, they have installed approximately 150 TiTech units in the US. Titech has a global installed based of 2000 units, all in the recycling business.
This is the second optical project for Hudson Baylor. HBC has operated a glass recycling facility in South Windsor, CT, since 2005 where 3-mix glass is separated into its component colors, for sale to glass mills throughout the eastern US. HBC is in the process of analyzing where additional application of this technology will provide the best benefits at its current and future facilities.