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Athens Services Project - 70-tph Mixed Material System Sun Valley, California - Case Study
Athens Services` state-of-the-art Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in Sun Valley, California was custom designed by Bulk Handling Systems (BHS) for and represents a significant move by Athens to automate its processing of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), multi-family, single family and commercial material streams in Southern California.
The system features a combination of BHS screen, Nihot air and NRT optical technologies to recover recyclables and organics. In 2017 Athens added Max-AI technology. The Max-AI Autonomous Quality Control (ACQ) unit employs neural network-based artificial intelligence (AI) to identify materials in a similar way to a person. Max prioritizes pick decisions and directs the AQC’s robotic sorter to capture non-redemption PET and mixed plastics, aluminum and residue, leaving a clean PET product.
The system is highly flexible and designed to process diverse material streams with a blend of automated machinery and manual sorting. High-value commodities such as fiber & containers go through a series of processing steps to maximize recovery and remove contaminants.
The sophisticated controls system provides a wide range of operating menus to adjust the system based on the composition of the inbound material stream and provides detailed operating data to Athens management to ensure plant efficiencies.
The facility, which will accept 1,500 tons of waste per day, is designed to meet Silver LEED specifications. The fully enclosed building is powered with 200kw of rooftop solar. LEED features include lighting and cooling efficiency measures, bicycle racks and lockers, electric vehicle charging stations, and low-VOC building materials.
“Athens Services believes strongly in investing in the latest technologies to improve our processes and ensure the diversion of as much waste as possible from area landfills,” said Greg Loughnane, president, Athens Services. “Whether that be building new ultramodern facilities or upgrading existing ones – we keep our finger on the pulse of the latest advancements in the industry.”
Athens currently maintains the largest recycling infrastructure of any company operating in the Southern California market.
- Location: 11151 Pendleton Street, Sun Valley, California
- Commissioned: October 2014
- Type: Mixed Materials, Residential & Commercial
- Tonnage: 70 tph; Two Lines
- Facility: 80,000 square feet
Material Captured: Equipment Utilized
- PET: Metering Wheel (2)
- HDPE-N: Bag Breaker
- HDPE-C: OCC Separator (2)
- OCC: Debris Roll Screen (2)
- Glass: Nihot Single Drum Separator (2)
- Mixed Plastics: Polishing Screen (2)
- Mixed Paper: NRT SpydIR (6)
- Aluminum: Paper Fines Screen-DRS (2)
- Ferrous Metals: Max-AI™ Autonomous Quality Control (AQC)
- Organics: Eddy Current Separator, Controls Package
