Equipment problems hit Michigan recycling plant

(Update: Repairs to the baler were performed Feb. 20-21, 2017. By the end of Tuesday, Feb. 21, county staff were testing a weld to the cylinder in the baler’s hydraulic system to make sure it would hold. After running successful tests on the baler Feb. 22, Kent County approved the restart of the system, and the recycling center began accepting recyclables. During the 18 1/2 hours when the baler was down, about 120 tons of recyclables were sent to the waste-to-energy facility.)

Michigan’s Kent County Department of Public Works has announced that its Recycling & Education Center has experienced a malfunction at the baler operating at the site, resulting in the facility shutting down temporarily.

While the baler is being serviced, the facility will be unable to take in any recyclables from waste haulers servicing customers in the county.

In a news release, Darwin Bass, director of Kent County’s Department of Public Works, the owner and operator of the recycling facility, says, “Despite having preventative maintenance programs and dedicated maintenance staff, there are always going to be things that happen to the equipment that are outside of our control. Sorting equipment in these state-of-the-art processing facilities is dependent on all pieces working together,”

“The baler is a critical piece of equipment in our system, and we are unable to run for any length of time without it,” adds Bass. “Residents and businesses are encouraged to hold off placing recycling carts out for service for the next couple of days in anticipation of the facility being able to process recyclables again at the end of the week,” Bass continues.

Currently between 1,000 and 1,250 tons of material is awaiting processing on the tipping floor. Kent County says it is working closely with two different technicians to assess the baler repairs and establish a time frame for when the facility can reopen.

Haulers that normally deliver recyclables to the Kent County Recycling & Education Center are being redirected to Kent County’s Waste to Energy Facility, about 1 mile away.

“Sending recyclables to the Waste to Energy Facility is not ideal. Sending recyclables to waste-to-energy is a much better alternative than landfilling. We can extract the energy, generate electricity and feed that back into the grid for productive use,” says Bass.

While the Recycling Center is down, the service fee for haulers shipping recyclables will be waived.