A lot of baling, but little recycling - Scrap Industry News - Brief Article

Recycling Today, June, 2002

What was once envisioned as a major recycling project at the Oak Ridge Department of Energy facilities in Tennessee is now being termed one of the world's largest "cleanup" projects, with little recycling taking place.

One of the world's heaviest-duty balers has been on the job for several months at the Oak Ridge site, but the machine is now being referred to as a compactor, as most of the 72,000 tons of demolition material emanating from Oak Ridge has been landfilled after concerns from environmentalists and metals companies resulted in a ban on recycling the materials.

"Our overall project is about 61 percent complete," says John A. Christian Jr., vice president of the demolition project for BNFL Inc. He says the project will end in 2004.

The metal being generated at Oak Ridge is being processed by a heavy-duty baler made by Harris Waste Management Inc., Peachtree City, Ga. The machine is powered by 2,200 tons of hydraulic force and can process 58 tons of metal per hour. The volume reduction has helped BNFL keep disposal costs down.