Pilot Program (Cont’d from Page 1)
• Minimize paper in the new rFlex product bale. • Reduce fiber Quality Control staff by 25 percent and reallocate that staff to other job functions in the MRF. • Integrate the FPP recovery system into TotalRecycle’s existing MRF control system. • Capture at least 90 percent of FPP, which was deter- mined from years of research prior to the pilot. Within one year of installing FPP sortation equipment at the TotalRecycle MRF, four of the five sortation perfor- mance goals established for the pilot demonstration were achieved, and the program continues to progress toward achieving the fifth goal. “It’s critically important to find financially viable oppor- tunities and markets for rFlex bales,” said Susan Graff, MRFF Research Director andVice President,RRS.“Our hope is that the pilot research serves as a valuable data set to help oth- er MRFs and communities economically recycle FPP while making cleaner paper bales. By working together to update sorting equipment, municipalities and businesses can sup- port better quality recycling and meet commitments to buy more recycled content products.” Upgrade Benefits The most immediate benefit of the FPP system upgrade for the MRF was cleaner, higher quality paper bales. The reduction in contamination for two traditional commodi- ty bales, Old Newsprint (ONP) and Mixed Paper (MP), was measured at over 70 percent. As part of their expansion plan, TotalRecycle has begun operational upgrades and equipment tuning improvements as of April 2020 that are expected to increase the FPP capture rate and improve against Performance Goal #1. Combined with the value cre- ated from sustained quality improvements in paper bales, this data is worth evaluating as investments are made to advance MRF sorting. Once the new mixed bale called rFlex approached per- formance goals in November 2019, bales were shipped for testing over a 90-day period to highly qualified firms in film plastic reprocessing from the U.S. and Europe. Over one dozen priority end market product opportunities were identified by this expert group in collaboration with RRS, brand owners, and the Pennsylvania Recycling Markets Center. Construction materials were identified as the high- est volume, most feasible “quick wins,”with many more op- portunities opening up once rFlex is processed into pellet or flake form. Explicit, demonstrated demand pull for these products will be critical to justify the investment needed to sort and create a marketable commodity. Approximately 56,000 households using standard lidded roll-out recycling carts were invited to participate in the residential collection phase beginning September 2019. Customer feedback received by the MRF found residents were widely receptive and positive about recycling FPP. While there was no added cost to communities for partic- ipation in this pilot, all residential recycling services have net costs. RRS modeled the capital cost of adding the FPP system to the MRF to aid decisions in other regions where
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(Cont’d on Page 9)
Recycling Markets June 22, 2020 3
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