Page 6
Progress — 2014
Eagle Waste
FROM PAGE 5
where it goes through a pre-sort,” said
Whittinghall.
At this point, three or four people pull
out large recyclable items, such as brake
drums, bicycle frames, fencing and other
large items that could damage the
equipment.
“Unfortunately, some garbage also
makes its way into the recycling bins
and those items are pulled out,” said
Whittinghill. Eagle Waste wants to remind its customers to keep trash out of
the recycling and also to keep recycled
materials loose. Plastic bags wrap
around the equipment and cause jams.
From pre-sort, the materials travel
on a conveyor into a second building
where the sorting continues.
“All of the equipment came from a
specialized recycling equipment manufacturer in New York, Green Machine
Sales LLC, and it was all custom-made
to fit and operate within the existing
building,” said Whittinghill. “That’s
where the other 13 or 14 people are
working, you still have people catching
what the equipment misses. Our goal is
to recycle 100% of everything that is recyclable.”
At different points along the conveyor
system, there are optical sorters that
identify certain types of plastics and
then a puff of air sends them into a specified container. There are three paper
sorters, with all of the corrugated paper
getting separated out. The other paper,
including newsprint, goes off into another bin. Employees take out the small
pieces of cardboard that got through on
the conveyor and they put it in the cardboard bin.
In addition to paper and cardboard
screens, two strategically located magnets are built into the system to collect
metal going through on the conveyor
line, sucking up tin cans and other small
metals. Additional technology, called an
eddy current, sorts out aluminum cans.
There also is a glass breaker that breaks
up the glass and dumps it in a bin.
Near the end of the line, the full bins
of each recycled product are mechanically emptied onto another conveyor system which carries the products to the
baling machine. There are two employees at this point that make one last
check. The bales are then stacked and
stored until sold.
Available to all
While recycling opportunities for
North Woods residents, businesses and
municipalities have been available in
some form in the past, the MRF at Eagle
Waste brings single-stream recycling to
everyone.
Single-stream recycling allows a person to place all their recyclables loosely
in one container, making recycling much
easier, according to Whittinghill.
Kwaterski Bros.
Wood Products, Inc.
Eagle Waste & Recycling in Eagle River has added 18 jobs to the community with
the expansion to its single-stream recycling facility.
—NEWS-REVIEW PHOTO
“Make it simple and they will do it,”
explained Whittinghill. He predicts that
if people are recycling properly, a family
of four should have a 96-gallon cart of recycling every two weeks and a 48-gallon
cart of trash once a week.
“You would be amazed at how much
is totally recyclable, because of this single-stream recycling center,” he said.
Whittinghill went on to say that the
goal is getting every resident, business
and municipality to recycle.
“Not only are you doing the right
thing for Mother Earth and for our children and our grandchildren, but the
more you can reduce trash, the more you
can move from the higher cost of pro-
cessing trash to the lower cost of recycling,” he said.
“The bottom line is that with singlestream recycling, with very minimal effort, recycling is now tremendously
easy,” said Whittinghill. “And the big
part of that is Alan and Marti Albee
made it happen right here in the North
Woods.
“Eagle Waste appreciates all of its
current customers and their support,”
added Whittinghill. “If you are not a customer, please give us a call at (715) 4770077. By supporting Eagle Waste, you
will be supporting your local economy
which is vitally important in northern
Wisconsin.”
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