Lawrence leaders get behind-the-scenes look at curbside recycling program

City commissioners and city management personnel tour the Hamm Material Recovery Facility, 26195 Linwood Road, Tuesday, Oct. 28. The plant receives, sorts and processes the cities recyclable materials.Ê.

City leaders got a glimpse Tuesday of what happens to all the material that gets thrown into the city’s new blue, curbside recycling carts.

It involves aluminum cans that pop, plastic bottles that are blasted by shots of air, and many pairs of human hands that get to touch lots of what you throw away.

“This machine creates a forcefield that aluminum really doesn’t like,” Charlie Sedlock, director of waste services for Hamm Inc., said of a giant magnetic machine called the Eddy Current. “It causes aluminum cans to pop like popcorn and bounce off this conveyor belt into a bin below.”

The city contracts with Perry-based Hamm Inc. to operate a Materials Recovery Facility that sorts and then sells the material to companies that use the recycled materials to make new products. Among the other devices in the 43,000-square-foot facility just outside of North Lawrence are:

• An optical scanner that uses special optical devices to recognize different types of plastics, such as pop bottles, laundry detergent bottles and milk jugs. Based on the type of plastic recognized, the machine delivers a burst of air that causes the material to be directed into the proper bin.

• A series of “air knives” that separate bits of paper from two-inch chunks of broken glass that come from the thousands of beer bottles and other glass products the city collects through its curbside recycling program.

But the most common type of machinery at the multi-million dollar plant are pairs of human hands. The facility — located at the U.S. Highway 40 and Kansas Highway 32 intersection — employs 16 “sorters” who stand at various stations along a conveyor belt. The sorters manually remove any materials that shouldn’t have been put into the recycling program.

The No. 1 item thus far? Plastic bags. Sedlock said most households have been doing a fine job of observing the prohibition of plastic bags in the recycling program. He said any bags — and the contents inside of them — simply are thrown in the trash.

“We’re just going too fast to stop and open every bag,” Sedlock said.

The plant, which employs 18 people, is designed to process about 10 tons of recycled materials per hour.

Both city officials and Hamm officials are pleased with how the process is going so far. The facility processed 190 tons of materials during its first week of operation. City officials think demand may slow some in coming weeks — perhaps to about 100 tons per week — once households get rid of some of the recycling material that had piled up while they were waiting for the program to begin.

On Tuesday afternoon, the plant had multiple rows of processed material waiting to be picked up by industrial users. That included several thousand pounds of aluminum cans ready to be picked up by Alcoa, the giant aluminum company. Also awaiting pick-up were large bundles of cardboard, plastic containers, newsprint and mixed paper such as cereal boxes and other packaging.

The city pays Hamm Inc. $45 per ton to process the material. That’s compared to about $28 per ton it pays Hamm to dump trash at the landfill. The city, however, can share in some of the revenues Hamm receives when it sells the material to end users. The city, though, only receives a portion of the revenues when the prices in the recycling market are above certain levels. Lawrence officials said it is still too early to estimate how those financial details will materialize this year.

But city leaders said the program is off to a strong start.

“Curbside recycling is a service that our residents said they really wanted,” said Kathy Richardson, manager of the solid waste division. “We are thrilled with the participation levels thus far. We’ve had very few households tell us they don’t want the recycling carts.”

City may review commercial recycling program

Lawrence officials are pleased enough with the kick-off of the city’s residential curbside recycling program that they may soon consider starting a commercial service.

Tammy Bennett, assistant director of public works, said the department plans to present information to city commissioners in early 2015 about how the recycling program can be expanded to businesses and other commercial users.

“That discussion is coming sooner than we once anticipated,” Bennett said.

Kathy Richardson, manager of the solid waste division, said the department is exploring ways to implement a commercial recycling program after many businesses have asked about a program following last week’s roll-out of the residential program.

“Interest has been very strong from businesses,” Richardson said. “I think people have seen how easy it is to recycle at home, and they want to do that at their businesses.”

City commissioners will make the final decision on whether to expand the program to commercial users and what rates would be charged to commercial customers.