The solid waste environment provides unique challenges for those tasked with keeping truck scales functional and profitable. Since most solid waste facilities are heavily trafficked and keep lengthy operational hours, keeping a truck scale up and running can be difficult. In addition to being functional, truck scales must also provide a hedge against losing thousands of dollars due to inaccurate weighing.

Digital truck scales provide unique solutions to the challenging environment of recycling and solid waste, helping operation managers avoid the pitfalls of common electronic truck scale failures. Even though the design is much more robust and streamlined, there are several things a truck scale owner must do to protect their investment. While solid waste and recycling truck scales must be calibrated and monitored by regulatory bodies, there are external aspects and circumstances that can cause inaccurate weighing and lost revenue.

Assessing the following factors can help operators develop a course of action for potential issues concerning truck scale functionality.

1. The scale foundation

The scale foundation is the variable that can cause the most trouble but is the easiest pitfall to avoid. Providing a sure foundation in the proper location is the first step in setting up a truck scale location. Since the environment in a recycling or solid waste location will produce debris, it is always good to keep in mind a truck scale design that will discourage buildup around load cells and wiring. Some digital truck scale designs place load cells up into the scale deck, providing a safe haven from garbage and filth that accumulates near load cell stand bases. If the load cells are following certain digital designs that are located near the ground, frequent power washes will be necessary due to debris buildup. It is vital to know the ingress protection (IP) rating of load cells and wiring to prevent water and pressure damage to load cells when cleaning, so become familiar with the IP rating system and know what level the load cells can handle when cleaning.

2. Inspect hardware, load cells and wiring

Digital truck scales are built to eliminate many of the problems associated with electronic scale designs, and there are many checks that can be made by scale owners to prevent downtime and damage. Since junction boxes are eliminated in certain designs and most of the wiring is reduced, there are just a few places that might be causing issues.

Check to make sure load cell connectors are tight and snug when fastened onto each individual load cell. Load cell connectors should not show any signs of damage. Load cell cables should be examined for damage or chew marks from rodents. Any voids or areas that can be exposed to moisture or sediment can cause unreliable weighing or a lack of load cell readings.

Recycling and solid waste scales are exposed to highly acidic conditions that can damage paint and surfaces. It is always good advice to regularly check paint for rust and areas where paint has been eaten away due to corrosion. Truck scale manufacturers use heavy-duty paint and curing methods to prevent metal exposure, but truck scale owners must still be diligent to protect their investment. Concrete deck truck scales can provide a good option as they are largely unaffected by the corrosive elements that can damage steel deck truck scales; however, steel deck truck scales can be replaced and moved much easier, so there is a trade-off. Concrete, if not formed correctly, can crack and eventually damage the deck until it is irreparable, so scale owners should remain vigilant for signs of cracking, as well.

End-users should also inspect load cell cover plates. These fit snugly above the load cell pocket, so if the cover plates are not fitting correctly, there is an increased chance of moisture and debris making their way down to the load cells.

Certain truck scale platforms have completely eliminated traditional checking, which simplifies problems associated with damaged checking equipment in the truck scale. These designs also greatly ameliorate rocking and movement that can damage a truck scale. For scales with traditional checking, check rods and bars should be examined for damage and bumper bolts should be checked for cracking and fracturing. If either one of these failures is observed, they should be corrected immediately to prevent permanent damage to the scale deck. Apart from physical damage to the checking components, scale owners must also be vigilant about keeping these systems properly adjusted within the scale manufacturer’s specifications. Failure to do so could result in weighbridge and load cell damage and costly downtime and repairs.

Always keep an eye on the deck of the truck scale. High volumes of overweight vehicles can damage the scale deck and render it useless. Remember to make it clear to operators what the weight limitations and concentrated load capacity (CLC) are for the truck scale to work within the confines of the weighbridge specifications.

3. Inspection and calibration

In addition to scale owners regularly performing checks on their scale, a calibration or inspection schedule should be arranged with a trusted truck scale dealer. Truck scales used in recycling and solid waste are likely to receive a great deal of wear and tear and heavy-duty use, so working out a calibration schedule with a qualified scale service company will be important. Normally, a yearly or bi-yearly inspection schedule will suffice, but if a facility is heavily used, increasing calibration frequency might be necessary.

Digital truck scale models offer a huge advantage over analog truck scales as they can be remotely monitored by the dealers that place the truck scales in service. Truck scale dealers have access to a whole range of diagnostic information about these scales, and they will be able to efficiently and expeditiously correct problems. Information about the scale’s location, load cell configuration, and specific load cell issues are all available at the truck scale dealer’s fingertips with digital load cell systems. Some scales are even capable of transmitting warnings that alert the truck scale dealer to issues with the home run cable and load cell cables, among other items.

Truck scale dealers will provide test weights and a test weight truck to verify the truck scale, checking to see if the load cells are within required tolerances. NTEP regulations require that scales used in legal-for-trade applications weigh within a certain tolerance so that customers get what they pay for and recyclers and solid waste owners get the most out of their scale operations in a manner that is fair to both the customer and scale owner. Truck scale dealers should also have current records of their test weights to prove that they are calibrated and accurate enough to test truck scales. Truck scale dealers will generate records of an owner’s scale’s compliance with weighing regulations, giving operators peace of mind and official documentation should it be required.

4. Scale usage and movement

Truck scales are designed to absorb and withstand a great deal of abuse from trucks that enter and exit weighbridge platforms. Truck scales that feature traditional checking are designed to move with traffic movements. Newer truck scales that have eliminated old-fashioned checking systems are designed to move slightly due to initial movement and then settle into a steady position. Both systems’ usage will have a longer life cycle if the scales and their checking systems are spared the extra stress of trucks entering and exiting quickly. Clearly marking entrances and exits with very low speed limits will reduce damage and extend the life of the truck scale, saving recycling and solid waste owners from having to invest in a replacement truck scale prematurely. Guiderails, not only advantageous as a safety implement, can alert drivers of the scale ahead, and ready them to slow their speed and help line up their vehicle with the lateral lines of the weighbridge. Card readers and gating are also a good addition to manage and control traffic to extend a scale’s life.

The digital advantage

Modern digital truck scales provide an enormous advantage over older types of weighbridge technologies. The ability of remote monitoring, elimination of burdensome checking components, and the protection of load cells helps prevent most of the expensive repairs and downtime that can burden a recycling center or solid waste location. Diagnosis is much quicker, and digital truck scales continue to provide great ROI for end users. Truck scale owners must also take an active role in protecting their investment by following the aforementioned tips. Applying these steps will keep digital scales running longer, and more consistently, protecting profits and productivity in the process.

Caleb Tidball is the marketing coordinator for Cardinal Scale Manufacturing Co.

In partnership with Allentown, Pennsylvania-based Energy Power Partners (EPP), the Cumberland County Improvement Authority (CCIA) has installed a leachate evaporation system from Heartland Water Technology at the authority’s Solid Waste Complex in Millville, New Jersey.

The new system, called the Heartland Concentrator, is a process that uses the hot exhaust from a power plant for evaporation to create an energy efficient cogeneration solution.

Since 2008, EPP has owned and operated a 4.8-megawatt landfill gas-to-energy plant at the CCIA Solid Waste Complex. The CCIA provides the landfill three gas-to-fuel engines that produce approximately 20 million kilowatt-hours, enough electricity to power 1,600 homes.

Although this project reduces annual emissions by 15,00 tons of carbon dioxide, the CCIA sought to further reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and create economic value by using cogeneration to treat its landfill leachate.

Currently, the Solid Waste Complex treats on average 100,000 gallons per day of leachate using a membrane technology called reverse osmosis (RO). However, the RO process creates 30,000 gallons per day of highly concentrated leachate that still must be trucked offsite for disposal.

By evaporating this leachate concentrate with the new Heartland system, the authority will eliminate GHG emissions and environmental risks associated with nearly 1,500 truckloads per year that were previously hauling leachate offsite, saving the county thousands of dollars per year.

“The [CCIA] understands and values its founding mission and objective to provide an environmentally safe and effective solid waste program to county residents,” says Gerard Velazquez III, president and CEO of the CCIA. “The ability to implement these programs while creating environmentally friendly and sustainable systems is integral to the ongoing operations of the authority and its energy partners.”

Joseph Derella, director of the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners, adds, “The authority is proving that innovative green technology not only improves our environment through the reduction of greenhouse gases, but it also is the engine that will drive the economy of the future, a future that has arrived in Cumberland County.”

The Glass Recycling Coalition (GRC), Ann Arbor, Michigan, has announced FCC Environmental Services has received gold-level certification for two material recovery facilities (MRFs) based in Dallas and Houston. According to GRC, FCC Environmental Services is the first to receive gold designation for MRFs without integrated glass beneficiation in the state of Texas and the eighth and ninth MRFs to receive this certification in the country.

“As this certification grows, it is evident that more MRFs are seeing the value in offering processes and technology to clean up the glass,” says Scott DeFife, president of GRC. “Glass is a core recyclable and residents want to recycle it and end markets are eager for this material. This certification gives an advantage for MRFs willing to take extra steps.”

In 2016, the city of Houston announced the removal of glass from its single-stream curbside collection contract. GRC reports that access to glass recycling was challenging when looking for a new processing contract for recyclable materials received from more than 400,000 households. In 2018, the city signed a 15-year contract with an option for a five-year extension. FCC built a MRF that would bring commingled glass collection to its program.

“FCC Environmental Services proudly accepts these certifications as a testament to both of our state-of-the-art technology MRFs designed to produce quality materials,” says CEO Inigo Sanz. “Notably, we returned glass recycling to the city of Houston for the benefit of our community.”

According to a news release from GRC, its free certification program recognizes MRFs with additional equipment and operational procedures to clean up glass in both single- and dual-stream systems, producing more marketable and higher quality glass. The GRC MRF Glass Certification was launched in the fall of 2019. In 2021, the glass certification criteria were updated to prioritize end market consistency and more thorough glass cleaning before beneficiations.

Eligible applications are judged on current infrastructure and a glass purity measure aligning with the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries’ Three-Mix Specification. An independent committee scores certification levels into gold, silver, and bronze certifications. According to GRC, MRFs holding this certification will have a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

GRC also has an interactive map that shows MRFs, glass processors and end markets across the country. GRC-certified MRFs are noted on the map, along with public recognition of the certification.

Machinex of Plessisville, Quebec, was founded in 1970 to provide machining services, parts and equipment manufacturing to industrial and agricultural clients. The company built its first material recovery facility (MRF) for Victoriaville, a small city in central Quebec, in 1985 and, since then, has worked with countless companies and municipalities around the globe to build MRFs.  

While Machinex’s work can now be found in various parts of the globe, a recent job for Charleston County, South Carolina, is one experience Chris Hawn, CEO of Machinex Technologies Inc., will not forget.

In 2016, the company was awarded an $8 million contract to design a recycling system for Charleston County’s new MRF that would manage 25 tons of material per hour. Because of construction and design issues, the project was paused in 2018 for a year. However, Machinex manufactured 70 percent of the facility’s equipment. During that time, the county tried to renegotiate its contract with the manufacturer, attempting to increase the size of the project while paying less.

Eventually, the county terminated its contract with Machinex after it had vetted other companies to replace the manufacturer and systems integrator. The county claimed that Machinex defaulted on the contract, an allegation Hawn says is untrue.

“Something like what happened in Charleston County is very rare,” Hawn says. “We do a lot of work like this, so making sure we maintain positive relations with a municipality is one of our main focuses. It was an odd experience.”

However, Hawn says the experience was instructional for the company.

The plan’s foundation

In 2016, Charleston County contracted with Machinex and Mashburn Construction, based in South Carolina, to construct the county’s MRF. Municipal projects usually are put out to bid, and the most cost-effective bid typically is selected. However, Hawn says his company was not picked conventionally.

“The county had no say in what company was selected,” Hawn says. Instead, Charleston County worked with a consultant who required four of the best-known systems companies to submit statements of qualifications for the job, he adds.

While a company is normally selected based on how low its bid is, Hawn says his company wasn’t the lowest bidder. Rather, Machinex was selected because the county’s consultant, Mitch Kessler of Kessler Consulting of Tampa, Florida, liked the company’s proposal and how flexible Machinex was willing to be in the design process. Hawn showed Kessler two options for construction, which included a budget-friendly option.

In 2017, Machinex began work on a custom recycling system for the MRF, which was expected to be completed in 2018 for $24 million, according to a report from The Post and Courier, a newspaper in Charleston, South Carolina.

Cracks begin to form

Before work began on the MRF, Andrew Quigley, who ran Charleston County’s Environmental Management department, determined that project was too big for the county’s budget. The 70,000-square-foot MRF would include the processing facility, an education center and offices. Quigley told Mashburn to scale down the facility, according to The Post and Courier article written by Chloe Johnson, which affected the bale storage area and tipping floor size.  

Not long after beginning construction work, Mashburn Construction discovered issues with the soil. As a result, 4,000 cubic feet of toxic soil had to be removed from the property, located along the Palmetto Commerce Parkway, halting work.

Soon after, Quigley resigned from his post because he learned the county had rehired Kessler Consulting without telling him. To Quigley, it felt like the county didn’t value his expertise, Johnson of The Post and Courier reports.

Originally, Kessler was rehired to review the county’s contract with a neighboring county where it was hauling its recyclables for processing during the construction of its MRF. His firm also ended up reviewing the Charleston’s MRF project and determined that the changes Quigley made were inconsistent with what the county council had envisioned.

When it all falls down

Once the project was deemed inconsistent with Charleston County’s plans in 2018, work was halted completely. The county and Kessler began working with Mashburn to include a bigger building that would centralize the collections fleet and Environmental Management offices. Machinex was asked to make new equipment for a single-stream system, The Post and Courier reports.

However, Machinex already had manufactured 70 percent of the equipment based on the initial proposal. As a result, Machinex and Kessler began renegotiating the company’s contract to adjust for the extra work that was involved. Hawn says his company, originally contracted for $8 million for the project, was trying to work with Kessler to scale up the project. The extra work involved meant more expenses, which is why the company renegotiated the contract to $10 million.

However, the county council wanted the company to produce the single-stream MRF for less than the $8 million bid for the original facility.

“They wanted us to make the new system at the cost of production,” Hawn adds. “That means we wouldn’t have made any profit on the work we did.”

Eventually, Mashburn Construction’s contract with the county was terminated for convenience, meaning both parties agreed on the exit. Mashburn received about $5 million for its work, according to The Post and Courier.

Meanwhile, the county began vetting new contractors for the project, including contractors for the recycling equipment and design-build contractors, during contract renegotiations with Machinex.

Kessler told Johnson, The Post & Courier reporter, that county staff selected a group of design-build contractors to ask for proposals rather than publicly soliciting bids.

He told the paper, “Council then wanted, appropriately, to look at, well, is that the best and right company for us? It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, I’m giving it to my uncle who makes MRF equipment in, you know, Tennessee. These were all leading, national, reputable firms.”

Neither Kessler nor the county council responded to interview requests from Recycling Today.

Hawn says his company was not aware that the county was vetting contractors again until former Charleston County Attorney Joe Dawson told him via a phone call. (Dawson also ran the county’s solid waste program before Quigley was hired and was re-engaged after Quigley left, The Post & Courier reports.)

In 2019, an attorney for Machinex sent the county a letter claiming it had violated its procurement code in soliciting bids for a new design-build contract.

The county drew up contracts with a different manufacturer in 2019. The following year, the county claimed Machinex had defaulted on its contract and terminated it, Hawn says.

When its contract was terminated by the county, Machinex made $2.7 million of the $10 million contract it had negotiated for the extra work.

Dodging the debris 

While the two entities eventually went their own ways, Hawn says he learned a great deal through the experience he intends to apply in future contracts and that others can as well.

“The most common characteristic of a company that maintains a positive relationship with a community is … an efficient service team,” Hawn says.

Maintaining a good relationship with municipalities is key for manufacturers, even if contracts don’t work out in the end, because municipalities communicate with each other, Hawn says, and one bad interaction could make a manufacturer look like it is difficult to work with. 

Hawn says one of the main ways a company and municipality can maintain a good relationship is by having good project management and keeping all parties involved informed about the project’s progress, which shows that a company is working in good faith.

Despite the company’s best efforts, communication with the county broke down because of issues with the new contract, Hawn says.

Hawn says effective communication and clear documentation are critical. Clear communication allows companies and municipalities to keep track of work, solve issues and maintain civility regardless of disagreement. Good documentation allows a company to provide references and records of communications to a municipality if issues arise.

Another thing Hawn suggests is that municipalities are service providers get to know the consultant who is working on the project. This means knowing the consultant’s record of accomplishment and how he or she handles relationships with other companies. 

“You want to know who you’re working with,” Hawn says. “They have the closer relationship with the municipality you’re trying to work for, so it’s important you know who they are.”

Hawn says Machinex has worked with Kessler in the past while working to construct a MRF for a city in Florida. Before construction began, he says Kessler intervened and told the city it needed to stop construction because the county was constructing a MRF and the city could not build one also.

If a relationship begins to turn sour, Hawn says the best way for all parties to minimize damage is through swift and efficient legal action. This way, if breach of contract or procurement issues arise, the parties can be prepared to settle these issues in court.

Hawn says Machinex considered suing Charleston for violating its procurement laws because the county was vetting other companies while Machinex was still under contract. However, the company’s attorneys told Hawn that while Machine did have a case, it would be drawn out and costly.

“We examined the pocketbooks and tried to figure out what we’d pursue and if it would be worth it,” Hawn says. “Would we pursue interference from the consulting company or financial damages caused by the county? Our attorneys said any legal action we’d take would have been long and drawn out and more expensive.”

Finding other ways to recoup its losses also played a role in whether Machinex would pursue legal action. Hawn says the company evaluated the machinery it had from the project and decided it could make up some of its losses by selling the equipment for parts. So far, Machinex has sold 20 percent of the machinery it made for the county, he says.

Even though Hawn says Machinex maintained good project management, the relationship still broke down.

Despite all of this, Hawn says Machinex decided to cut its losses.

“The most important thing is to trust your instincts,” Hawn says. “If a tough situation walks like a duck and talks like a duck, then it’s a duck.”