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Recycling and disposal of drums & plastic containers
MPCEE has
joined forces with a
major industrial drum recycling equipment manufacturer,
specialising in complete solutions for the automatic handling of drums and containers.
1. Drum washing and crushing system- static and mobile units
These drum washing and crushing units can be either static or
portable and offer the very best value as a highly profitable and sustainable growth
opportunity with a
continuous return on investment, which can be built upon if necessary. There
are two options: drums can be brought to a static unit or a more
flexible approach is to establish a mobile operation, offering
a completely autonomous and automated drum treatment facility, transportable to
the client’s own site and drums.
MPCEE offers you the chance to market
these robust and well-referenced units, throughout your country or sector. Your
clients or potential clients may already be in the oil or solid waste
management sectors or they may be looking for a new venture that will give
them an interesting return on their capital investment.
With more emphasis being placed upon recycling
and the viability of resalable by-products, the market for recycled and
value added end products is growing rapidly, offering many commercial
opportunities. These units, whether the static or portable variety, allow your
clients to sell the crushed scrap on the world market, for smelting and then
resale of the steel, etc. By so doing, they are performing a very important and
needed service in the solid waste recycling industry.
MPCEE now has the full details for
the complete range of equipment for both the static and mobile drum crushing
and washing units, designed for containers (drums) up to 55 gallons / 220
litres. The manufacturer has specially put together this information for MPCEE,
including examples of the excellent financial returns in
dealing with even the recycling of drums alone.
2. Cryogenics process for cleaning
containers
MPCEE is also able to advise on a patented process and
associated equipment, which use the science of cryogenics, the science of
low-temperature phenomena. A container with residue is placed into a
chamber and taken to temperatures as low as minus 300° F. for several minutes
by using liquid nitrogen. The container is then removed and either hit with a rubber
mallet or vibrated with a vibratory system. The embrittled residues fall out
of the container resulting in a clean container without the use of soap,
solvents or water and further resulting in a pure residue that can often be recycled
back into the user’s manufacturing process or recycled into another
product. It is the difference between the contraction and/or expansion of the
residue and the container through the use of cold temperatures that allows the
embrittled residue to disbond from the container.
3. Cryogenics process for the
recycling and disposal of plastic containers
An additional use for this process is the freezing of plastic containers, such as drums
and pails, so that the frozen containers can be placed in a drum crusher to be smashed
into pieces. These pieces can legally be disposed of or recycled
into other plastic products. Freezing is necessary because plastic containers
do not crush like steel containers. Plastic containers at ambient temperatures
“rebound” back to approximately 90% of the original size after attempts to
crush a warm container. Therefore, to obtain the best results required for
disposal or for recycling, the plastic containers are first frozen to
temperatures as low as minus 280° F., making the plastic brittle, and then the frozen
containers are crushed.
Another benefit of freezing and then crushing
frozen plastic containers is that if the frozen pieces are immediately placed
into a grinder, there is less wear and tear on the grinder and a smaller
grinder can be used to grind the small broken frozen pieces than when a
whole drum or drum pieces created by cutting a drum with a chain saw are placed
into a grinder.
MPCEE provides advice on
many technologies. For further information on any of the above, please do not
hesitate to contact MPCEE.
Martin Parr
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