Stadler launches new conveyor - Waste Today

2022-06-25 06:22:17 By : Ms. Kay Hoo

The new Stadler PX acceleration conveyor integrates the best features of the BB and DB conveyors for optical sensor sorting.

Equipment manufacturer Stadler, Altshausen, Germany, has released the Stadler Px acceleration conveyor. The company says it launched the equipment to meet the demand for higher throughput in sensor-based automatic sorting, which can operate at higher working speeds.   

The company says it has integrated features of its BB and DB conveyors and has taken the opportunity to introduce a host of improvements. They include a new air stabilizer, which ensures consistent sorting quality at faster speeds with light materials, resulting in purity of the output.  

“At Stadler, we are always very alert to how our customers’ needs evolve,” says Corinna König, the team leader of product management of Stadler. “We found that we were increasingly combining our BB and DB conveyors in customers’ projects to achieve the desired result, so we developed the PX, which combines the best features of each into one conveyor. This means that our customers now have only one machine to operate and maintain, simplifying their operation and reducing their costs.”  

König says they also significantly increased the belt speed, even with light materials, so they can increase their throughput with just one machine.  

Italian company Irigom Srl has installed six PX conveyors at its secondary solid fuel (SSF) plant, designed to separate and recover all valuable material from the incoming plastic waste. The recovered polyethylene terephthalate (PET), low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and polypropylene (PP) are sent to a recycling facility while the residue is used to produce high-quality SSF. The conveyors have been operating for three months, sorting PET, LDPE and PP materials for recovery, metals and polyvinyl chloride, which is removed from the process.   

“The PX is performing very well. The fast speed up to 4.5 meters per second allows us to significantly increase the total material input while maintaining a high-quality output,” says Stefano Montanaro, CEO of Irigom.  

The new PX conveyor carries over the solid frame construction and long service life of its predecessors, the BB and DB models. It features a slot to fit a sensor under the belt and is compatible with NIR and EM sensors from various manufacturers. It offers a belt speed ranging from 3.2 meters per second to 4.5 meters per second and can be specified with two motors to ensure the necessary torque at the required speed. The head drum is available in a choice of two diameters: 125mm and 220mm for the best detachment of the material.  

The material on the conveyor is accelerated and straightened so that the sensors fitted in the slot can detect the material on the conveyor at all speeds. An optional stabilizer improves performance by optimizing the positioning of the material on the belt with an airflow. The result is a higher throughput with consistently high sorting quality and higher purity levels of the blown-out fraction, even at top speeds with light materials such as paper or film.  

The PX benefits are compact in size and designed for easy transport. The frame, with the belt already mounted, can be separated into three or four sections, depending on the length of the conveyor. These can be stacked for transport and are simple to reassemble on-site. Even the model with the widest, 2900mm belt can be loaded on standard trucks or containers, also cutting down on transport costs. 

The NextCycle program selects new and expanding businesses and organizations through a competitive application process and connects them to resources and expertise.

NextCycle Colorado, a program designed to boost manufacturing solutions for recycled or recovered content in Colorado, will host a pitch competition Wednesday, June 22, from 5 to 8 p.m. at eTown Hall in Boulder. During the competition, businesses seeking to connect with private investors will pitch ideas. 

The competition is the culmination of NextCycle Colorado programming, which pursues creative ideas to improve recycling and composting end markets. This year’s event will showcase nine teams that spent the last four months receiving mentorship from industry leaders and subject matter experts as well as technical support from Resource Recycling Systems (RRS), a consultancy based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. 

“This is an exciting time for recycling in Colorado, as we’re putting progressive efforts in motion that have the potential to really move the needle and improve recycling rates statewide,” says Jill Hunsaker Ryan, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). “NextCycle has helped foster important innovations from local businesses, and I look forward to the creative solutions these latest teams bring to Colorado.”

“By investing time and resources into the teams, NextCycle Colorado creates stronger recycling businesses for the state,” says Kendra Appelman-Eastvedt, recycling grants supervisor at CDPHE. “These businesses will create new jobs, products and services and, most importantly, continue the momentum toward our goal of recycling more in Colorado.”

The NextCycle program selects new and expanding businesses and organizations through a competitive application process and connects them to resources and expertise. NextCycle teams have been awarded more than $1.5 million in Recycling Resources Economic Opportunity program grants from CDPHE since the program’s inception in 2018. 

Nine teams will be showcased in the 2022 pitch competition: 

“Colorado NextCycle supports businesses and organizations at every level,” says Juri Freeman, managing principal at RRS. “The state has immense entrepreneurial talent, and the Pitch Competition is the opportunity to elevate the teams and take their businesses to the next level.”

Bolstering NextCycle’s efforts is a new law approved earlier this month that will create Colorado’s first Circular Economy Development Center, which aims to empower Colorado businesses to create products using materials that Coloradans recycle. The center will help CDPHE achieve its commitment to increasing how much residents are recycling across the state.

The Colorado NextCycle pitch competition is free and open to the public. Investors, funders, business and community leaders, media and anyone interested are invited to attend. 

Please visit Colorado NextCycle Pitch Competition for more information or to register to attend.

Funding for Colorado NextCycle is provided through the Recycling Resources Economic Opportunity program. 

UPM Specialty Papers and Smithers consider sustainability trends for food packaging.

Many consumers expect food packaging to be recyclable, compostable or biodegradable, including food packaging today. According to a recent study from Helsinki-based UPM Specialty Papers and Akron, Ohio-based Smithers, this expectation of sustainable food packaging among consumers is expected to increase over the next 20 years.

UPM Specialty Papers and Smithers released a white paper titled, “Sustainable Food Packaging in 2040,” which provides a forecast for what sustainable food packaging might look like in 2040. The companies surveyed more than 200 senior packaging professionals across the globe and from throughout the packaging value chain to consider the likelihood and impact of key changes in food packaging.

The following are four key trends UPM Specialty Papers and Smithers highlight in the white paper.

By 2040, consumers will not tolerate a choice between sustainability and convenience—they will expect both.

Brands and retailers have experienced much disruption in the last two decades with an accelerating channel shift to e-commerce as well as the growing pressure to be more sustainable. As a result, brands will need packaging solutions that provide good end-of-life options without compromising convenience and performance.

“E-commerce is such a rapidly growing area that we as brand owners should consistently think about the ways to reduce the packaging waste for our consumers,” says Grace Kim, head of global packaging R&D at CJ CheilJedang in South Korea, adding that Amazon’s Frustration-Free Packaging is one example of how a company is providing a sustainable packaging solution as well as a better consumer experience.

By 2040, sustainability will be a government mandate.

Sustainability isn’t just a concern for consumers—governments and nongovernmental organizations have placed emphasis on achieving sustainability. Survey respondents reported that they expect to see an increase in regulatory control of packaging over the next two decades to improve environmental outcomes. Some expect to see more extended producer responsibility initiatives, recycling targets and packaging material bans.

Kim of CJ CheilJedang says Korea currently has mandated recycling fees for the use of plastic by brand owners. She says, “We are expecting that there will be many more regulations coming our way in next couple of years.”

By 2040, recycling, reuse and composting will increase, but about 21 percent of food packaging will still be sent to landfill.

Today, recycling rates vary from material to material and region to region, but members across the packaging value chain are working together to find ways to increase recycling rates for packaging materials.

However, respondents expressed concern about the lack of sufficient recycling infrastructure to improve recycling rates.

“Even if consumer behavior changes and we achieve a higher recycling rate, and even if the brand owners come up with the great technologies, if the recyclable packaging isn’t collected and sorted right, it won’t go back to the beginning of the life cycle,” Kim says.

Respondents also reported that they are concerned that there will not be sufficient investment to address the recycling gap.

Although survey respondents reported that they expect landfill and incineration to remain an end-of-life option for some packaging materials in 2040, there is optimism that recycling rates will improve, decreasing the rate of these materials going to the landfill. Recycling rates for fiber-based packaging are high. Also, trends related to increasing government mandates and wider acceptance of food-safe recovered fiber packaging will help boost recycling rates for food packaging.

By 2040, fiber-based packaging will be perceived as a very sustainable packaging choice.

In 2021, nearly half of all packaging materials are polymer-based, representing 40 percent of the global market by value. But as consumer sentiment against plastics increases and some brands are seeking to reduce their use of plastic packaging, survey respondents reported to UPM Specialty Papers and Smithers that they expect to see fiber-based packaging rise as a food packaging option.

In order for fiber-based packaging to increase as an option, progress must be made to packaging innovations, such as finding packaging solutions that enable fiber-based packaging to improve barrier performance without compromising recyclability as well as overall strength performance.

“The role of coatings in enabling the use of fiber-based packaging in different roles will be important, particularly to enhance salability and permeability. However, the coatings would have to be easily removed in recycling and/or compostable,” says Alistair Irvine, senior manager of food contact testing at Smithers, who is based in the United Kingdom.

Some technologies, such as blockchain and smart packaging, also will enable a more traceable and cohesive recycling system for fiber-based packaging.

The complete white paper is available to download online.

The recycling equipment provider adds Timber Ridge Equipment and Stone Equipment Co.

Eggersmann North America has signed dealer agreements with Timber Ridge Equipment, Ephrata, Pennsylvania, and Stone Equipment Co., Montgomery, Alabama, expanding its coverage along the East Coast.

Eggersmann North America is the Pennsylvania-based subsidiary of Germany-based Eggersmann GmbH, a manufacturer of recycling equipment ranging from Forus preshredders to Teuton universal shredders to Terra Select screens and windsifters.

Effective the first of this year, Timber Ridge Equipment became the official and exclusive dealer for Eggersmann shredders and screeners in the sStates of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island. The family business is owned by Tim and Marelda Martin and features a service department that can provide fast, high-quality service work in the field and in its own professional workshop.

To see the high-torque single-shaft shredder Z 60, the high-torque dual-shaft shredder SE 25 or the trommel screen T 60, contact tim@timberridgeequip.com or call 717-733-2453. Starting in May, Stone Equipment became Eggersmann’s official and exclusive partner for shredders and screeners in Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Mississippi.

The family-owned company already has a good reputation in the compost- and recycling industry, according to Eggersmann. With additional locations in Birmingham, Alabama; Hampton, Georgia; and future branches in the Carolinas and Tennessee, Stone Equipment has good coverage in sales and service within its territory, Eggersmann says. Stone’s environmental specialists are Nick Furey, nick@stonequipmentco.com and 904-903-8852, and Zack Gradwell, zack@stonequipmentco.com and 334-672-2297.

Eggersmann North America is the full-line supplier of trommel screens, star screens, shredders and self-propelled compost turners, engineered and manufactured in Germany and Poland. With its brands Terra Select, Teuton, Forus and Backhus, Eggersmann North America provides leading technology in the field of mobile recycling machines for almost all kinds of applications where shredding, screening or turning is required.

Landfill gas-to-energy company will be included in the Russell 3000 Index starting in late June.

Pittsburgh-based landfill gas-to-energy technology firm Montauk Renewables Inc. says it will join the Russell 3000 Index effective June 27. The company also recently was added to an MSCI USA Small Cap Index at the end of May.

Russell indexes are reconstituted annually to capture the 4,000 largest United States stocks as of May 6 of each year, ranking them by total market capitalization, according to Montauk.

“Montauk’s upcoming inclusion in the Russell 3000 Index and recent addition to the MSCI USA Small Cap Index demonstrates our recent progress and marks another significant capital markets milestone for the company following our initial public offering and listing on the Nasdaq in January 2021,” says Sean McClain, the firm’s president and CEO.

Adds McClain, “We welcome the increased exposure to the institutional investor community as we continue to execute against our strategic plan to optimize our existing operations and position ourselves for further growth with on-going evaluation of various strategic opportunities.” 

Russell indexes are widely used by investment managers and institutional investors for index funds and as benchmarks for active investment strategies, according to Montauk. Approximately $12 trillion in assets are benchmarked against Russell’s U.S. indexes, adds the firm.

The MSCI Global Small Cap Indexes captures small cap representation in 23 countries, comprised of nearly 4,500 constituent companies, according to the landfill gas-to-energy firm.

Montauk Renewables describes itself as having more than 30 years of experience in the development, operation and management of landfill methane-fueled renewable energy projects. The company has current operations at 15 projects located in seven different states.