Equipment Spotlight | APR 2022 Size Reduction

by MARY M. THORNTON

The world e-scrap recycling market was worth 50 million metric tons in 2019 and is expected to witness a CAGR of 3.1 percent through 2030, per GlobalNewswire. Growth has been fueled through continuous technology development in electronic devices and adoption of advanced or next generation devices. The e-scrap recycling industry strives to address rising environmental concerns and efficiently manage the rising volume of electronic waste. Proliferation of IoT and integration of technology updates to existing devices will continue to generate a high volume of e-scrap in coming years. There are many companies that manufacture the equipment needed to process e-waste, as mentioned below.

Allegheny e-scrap shredders provide the ability to turn an environmental and security issue into a practical solution. “Our versatile, industrial shredder is a reliable, cost-effective machine for destroying unwanted hard drives, digital media, televisions, bound books, office equipment, appliances and more. As a rugged, high capacity shredder, it can crush and shred products and materials into unusable and unidentifiable pieces,” stated Joe Barusch, sales and marketing director.

Two separate shredder shafts driven by different horsepower motors provide significant speed and crushing power, as well as a practical, cost-effective first step in recapturing valuable metals. Allegheny’s three models of the product and e-scrap shredder are the 3025DX, 3650DX, and 52125DX and specialized features include dual crusher and cutters, designed for handling bulk reduction. This reliable and secure destruction solves the problem of potential security risk or revenue loss inherent in obsolete materials. Waste stream reduction of electronics and products increases overall recycling and benefits the environment.

Barusch concluded, “Allegheny shredders thoroughly destroy items – from cell phones to copy machines, which helps prevent security breaches, product liability and re-selling of contraband materials. The global increase in the amount of obsolete or damaged products generated and a flood of discarded electronic devices cause problems such as security risk, product liability and revenue loss. Our experience allows us to build a custom industrial shredder system based on the products you want to destroy.”

M&J Recycling specializes in the design and manufacture of heavy duty shredding equipment for every segment of the recycling industry. “Through more than 1,000 installations worldwide and a focused approach on relentless R&D, M&J Recycling is one of the world’s leading shredder suppliers. Our shredder line is so versatile, we offer products that are as well-suited to e-scrap as they are to recycling streams that encompass metals and plastics scrap. M&J Recycling’s shredding technology is based on true and tested knife designs and open cutting tables that are the industry standard. The distinct technical advantages ensure our shredders provide consistent performance, low downtime, and reduced ‘cost per ton’ processing variables,” commented Lou Martins, general sales manager, Americas.

He added, “In today’s environment, one constant is the fact that streams are continuously changing. An M&J shredder is built to worst case scenario conditions. So, as streams change due to fluctuating business demands or changes in the operating environment, our shredders can handle the most challenging of streams, right out of the box. All M&J pre-shred units feature a modular design approach built from industry leading components, to meet your specific application and shredding performance needs. For low volume applications that previously might not have justified the cost of a shredder purchase, our K-Series shredders are a perfect solution.”

M&J Shredder features include: an open cutting table, which reduces wear on the cutting table area; bi-directional shredding, which results in a consistent flow to feed downstream processes; asynchronous shredding, which keeps waste constantly moving, improves shredding efficiency and eliminates wrapping and bridging; a central lubricating system, standard on all machines; a power pack and cutting table that can be mounted separately, providing design flexibility and blocking contaminants from delicate components; automatic reversal, a safety feature that provides strength without self-destruction; intelligent shredding “recipes” that automatically adapt to processed material characteristics; and Hardox steel used in all parts of the cutting table, shaft and knives.

Shred-Tech manufactures dual chamber data bearing device shredders to assist in the secure destruction of e-waste and small electronics. The dual chamber data bearing device shredder contains two shredding chambers that can shred smaller, solid state drives and larger hard drives. This shredder is available as a portable plug-in unit, stationary unit or it can be added onto any Shred-Tech shredding truck. The machine can range from 3 to 10 hp, depending on the type of shredder chosen, with throughputs ranging from 600 to 1000 drives per hour. These shredders are specifically designed to destroy data drives so that the info they contain can never be retrieved or reconstructed.

“The metals and plastics in computers and electronic devices are quite easy to reduce now, but components such as solid state hard drives are especially small and may not be destroyed thoroughly, by the knives in traditional shredders. To ensure that confidential data stored on small digital devices is destroyed requires a shredding machine that can process equipment into extremely small particles. Shred-Tech offers such products and we continue to be innovative and competitive as we meet customer demands. With over 500 units sold annually, our organization has the largest global footprint of all specialty shredding equipment manufacturers,” explained Stefin Sobel, processing sales manager.

Published in the April 2022 Edition of American Recycler News