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by
Mark Henricks
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In the world of recycling, the humble
can rules the roost. Sixty-three
percent of steel cans and 52 percent
of aluminum cans are recycled each
year, for a collective total of some
1.7 million pounds, according to
the Can Manufacturers Institute.
The reason is that used cans are
valuable. Although beverage containers
represent less than 20 percent of
the materials collected in curbside
recycling programs, they generate
up to 70 percent of total scrap value.
The most valuable commodity in curbside
programs, helping to pay for the
collection of other containers, is
the aluminum can.
Extracting that value, however, does
present recyclers with challenges.
Aside from volatile commodity markets
that control the value of the aluminum
they produce, recyclers must cope
with contaminants ranging from tin
cans to two-by-fours, materials that
may arrive in bags, boxes, bins or
barrels and, most important of all,
the low density of the original stream.
The biggest problem with aluminum
cans, said Bill Haag, owner of Haag
Manufacturing in Otoe, Nebraska,
“is they don’t weigh anything. You
can fill a 40 foot semi-trailer with
these and you wouldn’t have 3,000
lbs.”
The solution to this problem is to
flatten the cans. Once flattened,
aluminum cans take up a fraction
of the space, and can be easily moved
via conveyor or even blown with streams
of air. “This makes it so it’s efficient
to transport,” said Haag, whose company
manufactures the Mighty Mite Can
Densifier.
Users of Haag’s Mighty Mite load
up to 25 lbs. of aluminum cans into
a magnetic sorting table which helps
to remove ferrous contaminants. Then
the cans are tilted into a hopper,
which can hold up to 50 lbs. Then
a gas or electric-powered hydraulic
piston compresses them into 20 to
22-lb. bales. The stackable bales
allow up to 1,500 lbs. of aluminum
cans to fit on a single pallet.
Haag said the Mighty Mite, which
can handle approximately 500 lbs.
of cans per hour, is best suited
for small- to medium-sized recycling
businesses. “If you’re in a situation
where you want to buy 500 lbs. or
1,000 lbs. of cans a day, that’s
fine,” he said.
Steve Bunke, co-owner of Prodeva,
Inc., in Jackson Center, Ohio, said
that many smaller companies choose
his company’s Model 500 Flattener
Blower. This machine separates aluminum
cans from steel and mixed-metal cans
using an eight inch diameter magnetic
head pulley, then crushes the aluminum
cans and blows them into trailers,
roll offs or other containers.
The Model 500 has a rated capacity
of over 2,000 lbs. per hour and produces
output with a density of up to 7
lbs. per cubic foot. Material comes
in through an 8 inch diameter adjustable
delivery tube that is 12 feet long.
Dirt and moisture are removed with
the help of an infeed hopper screen.
Bunke said that while they do have
some Model 500s in larger recycling
centers, they target mostly smaller
ones. Among the product’s sales appeals
is its design for easy maintenance.
“Everything on our machine is easily
accessible. Without tearing the machine
down, you can replace anything on
the machine,” Bunke said. “I’d say
they’re very user friendly.”
At C.S. Bell Company in Tiffin, Ohio,
Dan White, market operations, said
they help to address challenges related
to how material arrives at a recycling
facility. “If it’s coming in loose,
bagged, in barrels, in a self-dumping
or self-tipping hopper, they have
to manage their cans in more than
one format,” he said. Because of
that, many customers request that
he modify their can-flattening and
blowing machines to accommodate different
forms of input.
C.S. Bell makes a Model CM-95P Can
Crusher as well as a Model CS-305
Can Blower. Both can be used separately
as standalone machines or combined.
“They can be bought at the same time
or, if budgets don’t permit, they
can get a crusher and at a later
time buy a blower and roll it underneath,”
White said. “It’s a complementary
piece of equipment.”
The CM-95P Can Crusher is rated at
1,000 lbs. per hour and employs a
¾ yard hopper and a magnetic separator
and reject chute. It can be set to
discharge into a standard container
or feed into a CS-305 Aluminum Can
Blower. The blower can process up
to 3,000 lbs. per hour of empty whole
or crushed cans. Height and angle
of its blower discharge tube are
adjustable. The blower can be oriented
in-line or at a right angle to the
crusher.
Perceptions regarding the state of
the industry depend on who is doing
the talking. Haag and Bunke say sales
have slowed since aluminum prices
began falling. “Cans are typically
around a dollar a pound when you
sell them, and we’ve been paying
50 cents,” said Haag. “Now they are
about 55 cents a pound and all you
can pay for them is 40 cents. Business
has taken a hard hit in the past
couple of months.”
White said C.S. Bell has been working
through a stack of back orders, however,
and has seen little slowdown. “One
of the big drives in the past 10
years has been to increase our foreign
presence,” he added. “This past year
we ended with foreign sales accounting
for 40 percent of all sales. That
continues to grow.”
Bunke reports a mixed bag. “We had
a very good year last year, and then
everything dried up in the last month
or so,” he said. “But it’s starting
to come back now.”
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