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Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery General Manager Jim Nejedly talks about the recent upgrades to the company’s recycling machine during a tour of the Pittsburg, facility Thursday, Dec. 1.
Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery General Manager Jim Nejedly talks about the recent upgrades to the company’s recycling machine during a tour of the Pittsburg, facility Thursday, Dec. 1.
Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery has modernized its recycling process to make it more efficient, but the result won’t affect your rates.
The company celebrated the opening of its retrofitted recycling facility, including their newly upgraded recyclables sorting machine, called “Big Blue,” Thursday, Dec. 1.
The facility in Pittsburg showed off its new, more streamlined, processes for recycling various kinds of goods. But officials there also said the upgrade won’t affect their ratepayers because the new equipment will better enable them to process recyclable material into commodities for potential buyers.
“We try to finance these projects in ways that are availing ourselves of resources at the state and local levels,” said soon-to-be CEO Kish Rajan. “Those folks that are here from our jurisdictions, you help enable us to finance these projects in ways that minimize impacts to the rate payer and maximize our ability to perform at our best. Those partnerships are vital to the success you see here today, and that you’ll continue to see over time.”
The center serves residential and commercial accounts in Oakley, Bethel Island, Knightsen and unincorporated Brentwood as well as Concord, Pittsburg, Rio Vista and Bay Point. Their 90,000-square-feet recycling facility is in Pittsburg, and also open for dropping off recyclables such as yard waste, paper, wood, plastics, metals, cardboard, construction debris, and more. The center is the largest in Contra Costa County, according to their website.
“Knowing that the recycling center’s goal is to have 0% of recycled goods go to the landfill is quite amazing,” said Shannon Shaw, Oakley councilmember-elect and Planning Commission Chairperson, who attended the luncheon and tour. “They’ve been an amazing company to work with.”
The new machine is designed and distributed by Bulk Handling Systems, which developed the first single-stream recycling system in the U.S. and has set the standard for performance and reliability, according to their website. Their machine at the Pittsburg facility includes state-of-the-art features such as improved screens to better separate paper and cardboard from bottles and cans, optical sorting that uses infrared technology to capture the most bottles and cans, and an artificial intelligence unit that scans and recovers additional saleable material from the residual stream. An additional baler was also added to increase the capacity of separated commodities. The Total Intelligence Platform provides real-time information on material composition, system performance, and maintenance, resulting in less overall downtime during the sorting process.
“Instead of using semi-automated, or mechanical, components to separate materials, it’s going to use this technology of infrared sensors, optical cameras, things of that nature, to really get us to be where we can sort this a lot faster than we used to,” said Enrique Castillo, Materials Recovery Facility Operations Manager.
As a result of the change, the company is able to process 35 tons of material per hour.
“We generally process about 300 tons of material in this building every day,” General Manager Jim Nejedly said. “There’s over half a million pounds that we process daily on that machine.”
The efficiency of the new machine allows for all the processing to happen in a single shift, but according to Nejedly, they’d like to see an even higher intake of recycled material in order to move into a second shift. Nejedly praised his current team, saying they are “hard-working, good, really solid people.”
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Recycling_01.jpg
Mt. Diablo Resource recovery's upgraded recycling machine, "Big Blue," processes 35 tons of recyclable material per hour. (Melissa van Ruiten/The Press)
Chief Administrative Officer and soon-to-be CEO Kish Rajan talks about how Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery's upgraded recycling machine will better serve their customers, Thursday, Dec. 1. (Melissa van Ruiten/The Press)
Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery General Manager Jim Nejedly talks about the recent upgrades to the company's recycling machine during a tour of the Pittsburg facility, Thursday, Dec. 1. (Melissa van Ruiten/The Press)
Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery General Manager Jim Nejedly talks about the recent upgrades to the company's recycling machine during a tour of the Pittsburg facility, Thursday, Dec. 1. (Melissa van Ruiten/The Press)
Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery General Manager Jim Nejedly talks about the recent upgrades to the company's recycling machine during a tour of the Pittsburg facility, Thursday, Dec. 1. (Melissa van Ruiten/The Press)
Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery General Manager Jim Nejedly talks about the recent upgrades to the company's recycling machine during a tour of the Pittsburg facility, Thursday, Dec. 1. (Melissa van Ruiten/The Press)
Being able to monitor real-time information on system performance is among the new technology that is being used by Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery's upgraded recycling machine. (Melissa van Ruiten/The Press)
Project Manager Enrique Castillo talks about some of the new technology that is being used during the tour of Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery's upgraded recycling machine. (Melissa van Ruiten/The Press)
Mt. Diablo Resource recovery's upgraded recycling machine, "Big Blue," processes 35 tons of recyclable material per hour. (Melissa van Ruiten/The Press)
Melissa van Ruiten
Recycling_02.jpg
Chief Administrative Officer and soon-to-be CEO Kish Rajan talks about how Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery's upgraded recycling machine will better serve their customers, Thursday, Dec. 1. (Melissa van Ruiten/The Press)
Melissa van Ruiten
Recycling_03.jpg
Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery General Manager Jim Nejedly talks about the recent upgrades to the company's recycling machine during a tour of the Pittsburg facility, Thursday, Dec. 1. (Melissa van Ruiten/The Press)
Melissa van Ruiten
Recycling_04.jpg
Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery General Manager Jim Nejedly talks about the recent upgrades to the company's recycling machine during a tour of the Pittsburg facility, Thursday, Dec. 1. (Melissa van Ruiten/The Press)
Melissa van Ruiten
Recycling_05.jpg
Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery General Manager Jim Nejedly talks about the recent upgrades to the company's recycling machine during a tour of the Pittsburg facility, Thursday, Dec. 1. (Melissa van Ruiten/The Press)
Melissa van Ruiten
Recycling_06.jpg
Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery General Manager Jim Nejedly talks about the recent upgrades to the company's recycling machine during a tour of the Pittsburg facility, Thursday, Dec. 1. (Melissa van Ruiten/The Press)
Melissa van Ruiten
Recycling_07.jpg
Being able to monitor real-time information on system performance is among the new technology that is being used by Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery's upgraded recycling machine. (Melissa van Ruiten/The Press)
Melissa van Ruiten
Recycling_08.jpg
Project Manager Enrique Castillo talks about some of the new technology that is being used during the tour of Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery's upgraded recycling machine. (Melissa van Ruiten/The Press)
Melissa van Ruiten
Recycling_09.jpg
Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery General Manager Jim Nejedly talks about items the facility doesn't process as recycling. (Melissa van Ruiten/The Press)
Melissa van Ruiten
Recycling_10.jpg
Mt. Diablo Resource recovery's upgraded recycling machine, "Big Blue," processes 35 tons of recyclable material per hour. (Melissa van Ruiten/The Press)
Melissa van Ruiten
Recycling_11.jpg
An infographic gives an overview of how Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery's upgraded recycling machine works. (Melissa van Ruiten/The Press)
Melissa van Ruiten
Up to 80%-85% of the recycled materials, or commodities, get exported to overseas buyers, while the remaining material is sent to purchasing companies within the United States, according to Castillo.
“A lot of your plastics and metals will stay stateside, mainly in California,” said Castillo. “That’s predominantly your plastics, like your rigid plastics and your water bottles.”
While Nejedly did not disclose the amount that buyers paid for different types of commodities, he did say that aluminum typically brings in the highest amount of money. Some of the other main commodities that are baled and sold include corrugated cardboard, light and rigid plastics, natural and colored high - density polyethylene (milk jugs, soap bottles, etc), tin, office pack (shredded paper), and mixed paper.
“The better you can separate those commodities into individual bales of that pure material, the more marketable it is, both domestically and internationally,” Rajan said. “So, two things happen. One, we maximize the recyclability, so that we’re maximizing the environmental impact. And two, we’re maximizing the financial impact, the value of these commodities, so that we’re doing our best job for the ratepayer, financially, as well.”
Occasionally, non-recyclable or soiled materials find their way into the processing stream. While there is a quality control system in place to prevent these materials from being passed through, there is always a margin for error. Any material that ‘gums up’ the system can lead to downtime for the machine, resulting in thousands of dollars worth of lost revenue per hour, according to Nejedly. Additionally, if a buyer discovers undesirable materials while inspecting their commodity purchase, they will automatically disqualify the entire shipment of that material, at the expense of the exporting company.
“Going back to the basics” – Bottles, cans, newspaper, and cardboard are good materials for consumers to concentrate on recycling, said Rajan. The cleaner the materials, the higher the chance that they’ll be sorted into a recycled commodity. According to Nejedly, a good rule for consumers to consider when tossing recyclables in the bin, is “would you put it in your dishwasher?” Any residue that can be rinsed off should be.
“Because our company does not own a landfill, we have always been dedicated to thinking about resource recovery,” Rajan said. “We’ve always been oriented about how we can divert material from the landfill and put it to a higher and better use, both for environmental stewardship and proper resource conservation, but also because the economics associated with that, to always do the best we can for our ratepayers.”
Since the 1930, the family-owned company has strived to be the leader in waste and recycling services through their attention to detail, optimized systems, and community outreach and education, according to their website.
“To have the ability to come in and see firsthand and get educated, when there are new laws coming out and new regulations, has been great,” said Shaw. “The outreach that they do with the community, I think, is what makes them so successful.”
For more information about the company, including tours and educational opportunities, visit https://mdrr.com.
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