Hamm Expands Kansas MRF to Add Single-Stream Recycling

Solid waste firm Hamm Inc. has expanded its material recovery facility (MRF) in Lawrence, Kan., to add a single-stream recycling operation.

The new operation for the Perry, Kan.-based company has the processing capacity of 10 metric tons per hour, with a planned further expansion to 20 metric tons per hour. The operation will sort paper, old corrugated cardboard (OCC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and mixed plastics, glass, ferrous and non-ferrous materials.

Spartanburg County, S.C.-based Stadler America LLC installed the system, according to a news release. Key to the system is the Stadler Ballistic Separator STT5000/101 for sorting papers, containers and fines. It also includes a DB Technologies OCC Screen, glass breaker and windshifter, a Steinert optical sorter, magnet and eddy current separator and a Joest flip-flop screen.   

In 2013 the city of Lawrence established a single-stream collection system to increase recycling, and it awarded the contract to Hamm, whose waste disposal services include landfills, transfer stations and roll-off services.

Recycling markets continue to struggle. Industry financial analyst Leone Young, in her latest Waste360 Business Insights column about first-quarter fiscal results in the waste and recycling industry, noted that recycled commodity pricing, particularly paper and plastic, did worse than the big solid waste companies expected.

But firms continue to add recycling capacity. Late last year Lycoming County, Pa., opened a 60,000-sq.-ft. facility in Montgomery. City of Industry, Calif.-based Athens Services added an 80,000-sq.-ft. facility in Sun Valley, Calif. And a public-private partnership has expanded a MRF in Quebec City to double its capacity and efficiency.