Sims Municipal Recycling

If there's one thing that people are good at it's generating trash.

Sims Lifecycle Services (SLS) plays a critical role in helping businesses and data centers manage the profound shift in how and where technology is managed. As a worldwide leader in IT asset and cloud infrastructure reuse, redeployment and recycling, SLS offers IT asset disposition (ITAD) and e-waste recycling solutions for businesses. Sims Limited is a global leader in metal and electronics recycling, and an emerging leader in the municipal recycling and renewable energy industries. With more than 200 facilities and operations in 15 countries, Sims plays an integral role in the circular economy by making resources available for future use. Ars Technica's John Timmer takes a tour of the Sims Municipal Recycling facility in Sunset Park in Brooklyn, NY, and learns about the state of recycling in N.

Sims Recycling Brooklyn

If there are two things people are good at, it's developing innovative solutions to problems... and generating trash.

At the intersection of these abilities lie cutting-edge recycling centers like Sims Municipal Recycling. Located in Sunset Park, Brooklyn with an unobstructed view of the Statue of Liberty, Sims Municipal is responsible for collecting and processing over half of the recyclable material collecting in New York City. This amounts to over 800 tons of tons of material each day.

That's a lot of trash.

In order to accommodate such an enormous amount of waste, Sims Municipal utilizes a combination of traditional sorting practices with optical sensors to identify and sort objects to be recycled. We recently visited their facility in Brooklyn to learn more about their process and how it was made possible by the boom in sensor technology.

Sensor Boom

Before we dive into how Sims does what they do, you may be wondering, 'Hey, Octopart? Why are you talking about trash? What does this have to do with electronic components?'

To answer that question let's take a step back and provide some context.

In the world of components, sensors are one of the fastest growing categories. Here at Octopart, we've seen the total page views for sensors grow 37.7% from October 2016 to October 2017. A number that beat the average growth seen in other categories by 10%.

Optical, thermal, motion, pressure; all types of sensors are being deployed in new and innovative ways. From motion and pressure sensors in your phone to smart thermostats, sensors are everywhere and in more products than ever before.

As sensor size shrinks and microprocessor power increases, the combination has allowed for new solutions to complex problems and improving pre-existing processes. With Sims, deploying sensors to sort waste has allowed them to scale their operation in order to meet the demands of New York City.

Sorting with Sensors

Located throughout the twisting labyrinth of conveyor belts inside the Sims facility are sixteen Tomra Autosorts Housed inside of a distinctive orange casing, the Autosort uses high resolution, near-infrared sensors to identify up to 10,000 plastic objects per minute with over 95% accuracy.

These sensors can be programmed to detect different materials like HDPE and PET plastics and clear glass. For colored glass, Sims uses the Redwave optical sorter. Additional scanners can be added over time to accommodate new materials once they become more prevalent in the waste stream.

As with any technology, these scanners aren't without some limitations. Spectrographic sorting can be thrown off by darker colors, specifically gray and black. Labels can also prove troublesome, as these sensors perform a surface level scan of the object, causing items with large labels to be misidentified. Food is another confounding factor for these sensors, so you might want to start rinsing your recycling before you throw it out. Even with these highly efficient scanners, humans are still required to compensate for their shortcomings.

Once an object has been scanned and identified, a targeted blast of air will move it along the proper path. Once all materials have been sorted into their respective categories, everything is compressed into bales which can then be sold as raw material to be used in the creation of new items.

Sensors Shaping Behavior

Beyond increasing efficiency in waste processing, the use of sensors has reshaped the behavior of plastics manufacturers. Because of limitations of the scanners in detecting darker colored PET plastics, manufacturers have begun to produce containers with lighter colors to improve recyclability.

As we continue to excel at creating waste, Sims Municipal's use of optical sensor technology has enabled them to keep up. Thanks to the boom in sensor application creating the technology that possible for them to develop this highly efficient plant, Sims and other similar plants will be continue to improve in efficiency and capability.

Still, much like the workers in the plant checking for material that the sensors missed, there is more we can do to supplement the technology in use.

At the end of the tour, our guide offered us some parting advice: Leave bottle caps on. It makes them easier to recycle.

And don't throw out batteries. They tend to explode.

Sims Metal Management Ltd is the leading metals and electronics recycling company in the world. The company specializes in ferrous and non-ferrous metals recycling, post-consumer electronic goods recycling, and municipal waste recycling. Founded in 1917, its primary operations are located in the United States (where it is now headquartered), Australia (where the company was founded and its stock listing remains), and the UK.^[2]

History[edit]

Sims Metal Management was established in 1917 by Albert Sims, a recycled metals dealer in Sydney, Australia. The business was incorporated as Albert G. Sims Limited in 1928 and was renamed Simsmetal Limited in November 1968. In November 1970, Sims merged with Consolidated Metal Products Limited and the merged ASX, listed company was named Sims Consolidated Limited. In May 1979, Sims Consolidated Limited was acquired by Peko-Wallsend and subsequently delisted.^[3]

In February 1988, Sims entered the US scrap recycling market through the acquisition of LMC Corporation, located in the state of California. In August 1988, Sims Consolidated Limited was included in the purchase of Peko-Wallsend by North Limited.^[4] In 1989, North Limited sold the business to Elders Resources NZFP Limited, a diversified resources company.^[5] In 1990, Carter Holt Harvey made a successful takeover bid for Elders Resources NZFP Limited and divested that company's non-forestry businesses, which included Sims.^[6] Sims changed its name to Simsmetal Limited in 1990 and relisted on the ASX in November 1991.^[3]

In August 1992, Sims expanded its presence in New Zealand through the merger of its business there with the ferrous recycling operations owned by Pacific Steel Industries, a Fletcher Building company. This joint venture, known as Sims Pacific Metals Limited, operates throughout New Zealand.^[7]

In February 1995, Sims acquired a 51% ownership interest in Sims Bird Limited in the UK, which was its first major entry in the UK scrap metal market. The company acquired the remaining 49% of Sims Bird Limited in May 1998. In April 2000, Sims acquired Phillip Services (Europe) Limited in the UK, which significantly increased its presence in that market.^[8]

These sensors can be programmed to detect different materials like HDPE and PET plastics and clear glass. For colored glass, Sims uses the Redwave optical sorter. Additional scanners can be added over time to accommodate new materials once they become more prevalent in the waste stream.

As with any technology, these scanners aren't without some limitations. Spectrographic sorting can be thrown off by darker colors, specifically gray and black. Labels can also prove troublesome, as these sensors perform a surface level scan of the object, causing items with large labels to be misidentified. Food is another confounding factor for these sensors, so you might want to start rinsing your recycling before you throw it out. Even with these highly efficient scanners, humans are still required to compensate for their shortcomings.

Once an object has been scanned and identified, a targeted blast of air will move it along the proper path. Once all materials have been sorted into their respective categories, everything is compressed into bales which can then be sold as raw material to be used in the creation of new items.

Sensors Shaping Behavior

Beyond increasing efficiency in waste processing, the use of sensors has reshaped the behavior of plastics manufacturers. Because of limitations of the scanners in detecting darker colored PET plastics, manufacturers have begun to produce containers with lighter colors to improve recyclability.

As we continue to excel at creating waste, Sims Municipal's use of optical sensor technology has enabled them to keep up. Thanks to the boom in sensor application creating the technology that possible for them to develop this highly efficient plant, Sims and other similar plants will be continue to improve in efficiency and capability.

Still, much like the workers in the plant checking for material that the sensors missed, there is more we can do to supplement the technology in use.

At the end of the tour, our guide offered us some parting advice: Leave bottle caps on. It makes them easier to recycle.

And don't throw out batteries. They tend to explode.

Sims Metal Management Ltd is the leading metals and electronics recycling company in the world. The company specializes in ferrous and non-ferrous metals recycling, post-consumer electronic goods recycling, and municipal waste recycling. Founded in 1917, its primary operations are located in the United States (where it is now headquartered), Australia (where the company was founded and its stock listing remains), and the UK.^[2]

History[edit]

Sims Metal Management was established in 1917 by Albert Sims, a recycled metals dealer in Sydney, Australia. The business was incorporated as Albert G. Sims Limited in 1928 and was renamed Simsmetal Limited in November 1968. In November 1970, Sims merged with Consolidated Metal Products Limited and the merged ASX, listed company was named Sims Consolidated Limited. In May 1979, Sims Consolidated Limited was acquired by Peko-Wallsend and subsequently delisted.^[3]

In February 1988, Sims entered the US scrap recycling market through the acquisition of LMC Corporation, located in the state of California. In August 1988, Sims Consolidated Limited was included in the purchase of Peko-Wallsend by North Limited.^[4] In 1989, North Limited sold the business to Elders Resources NZFP Limited, a diversified resources company.^[5] In 1990, Carter Holt Harvey made a successful takeover bid for Elders Resources NZFP Limited and divested that company's non-forestry businesses, which included Sims.^[6] Sims changed its name to Simsmetal Limited in 1990 and relisted on the ASX in November 1991.^[3]

In August 1992, Sims expanded its presence in New Zealand through the merger of its business there with the ferrous recycling operations owned by Pacific Steel Industries, a Fletcher Building company. This joint venture, known as Sims Pacific Metals Limited, operates throughout New Zealand.^[7]

In February 1995, Sims acquired a 51% ownership interest in Sims Bird Limited in the UK, which was its first major entry in the UK scrap metal market. The company acquired the remaining 49% of Sims Bird Limited in May 1998. In April 2000, Sims acquired Phillip Services (Europe) Limited in the UK, which significantly increased its presence in that market.^[8]

In November 2002, Simsmetal Limited changed its name to Sims Group Limited. In October 2005, the company merged with entities operating certain of the recycling businesses of Hugo Neu Corporation, a privately owned US corporation. This merger provided Sims with a significant presence in southern California, New York and New Jersey.^[9]

In September 2007, Sims sold its Southern California business into a joint venture with Adams Steel. The joint venture, SA Recycling, is operated by Adams Steel and is one of the largest recyclers in the US operating over seventy facilities in seven states.^[10]

On March 14, 2008, Sims issued 53.5 million American depositary receipts (ADRs), with a face value of A$1.5 billion, to purchase the issued capital of Metal Management Inc. (MMI) in the US. MMI was one of the leading full-service scrap metal recyclers in the US, with locations in 17 US states. The acquisition was designed to strengthen Sims' position in the North American scrap recycling market, increase the opportunity to be a supplier of raw materials to US steel mills, and expand its presence in non-ferrous products. The acquisition was complementary, because Sims' operations in North America were primarily export-focused, while MMI's operations were primarily domestic-focused, and included a large non-ferrous recycling business. The acquisition of MMI in March 2008 created the world's leading publicly traded recycling company. In November 2008, shareholders approved the changes of the corporate name to Sims Metal Management Limited.^[11]

Divisions[edit]

Metals Recycling[edit]

Sims Metal Management buys ferrous metal from metal dealers, peddlers, auto wreckers, demolition firms and others who generate obsolete metal and from manufacturers who generate industrial metal. Ferrous metal is processed for resale using a variety of methods, including sorting, shredding, cutting, torching, baling or breaking. After processing, ferrous recycled metal is sold to end users such as EAF mills, integrated steel mill, foundaires and brokers.^[12]

Sims sources non-ferrous metals from manufacturers, known as production offcuts, and from generators of electricity, telecommunication service providers and others who generate obsolete metal. Peddlers and metal dealers, who collect from a variety of sources, also deliver material directly to their facilities. In addition, the company generates significant quantities of non-ferrous metal as a byproduct.^[13]

Sims Metal Management operates a geographically diverse network of processing facilities, with numerous deep-water port access,^[14] supported by an extensive network of feeder yards which source recyclable ferrous and non-ferrous metals.^[15] Sims Metal Management today has over 130 physical operations in North America, 57 in Australasia, and more than 37 locations in the United Kingdom and Continental Europe.^[16]

Electronics Recycling[edit]

Sims Municipal Recycling Of New York

Sims Recycling Solutions (SRS) is the company's electronics recycling division. This includes product de-manufacturing and processing operations, and commonly is referred to as e-recycling. SRS offers comprehensive and cost-effective recycling services for 'end-of-life' and redundant electrical and electronic equipment and materials, ranging from product assessment to recycling. SRS provides services for Original Equipment Manufacturers, Contract Equipment Manufacturers, suppliers, importers, lease and finance companies, sector organizations and end users to enable them to comply with their responsibilities under relevant environmental regulations, including the European Union's Directive 2002/96/EC on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, or the WEEE Directive. Additionally, SRS offers business-to-business IT and electronic equipment asset management and recovery service that operates across a global network. The company's services include the management and control of the entire asset management process, including transport, coordination, product identification, asset registration and reporting. SRS offers clients the option of redeployment, reclamation of parts and/or resale and recycling, delivering legal compliance as well as a potential financial return from the resale of refurbished equipment.^[17]

SRS has 42 facilities operating globally offering a range of services including the collection, refurbishment and re-sale of working equipment, parts recovery for resale, mechanized testing and processing of monitors, mechanical recycling of e-recycling and secondary smelting and refining of high grade electronics by-product materials.^[18] Sims recycling facilities in the UK specialize in fragmenting domestic and commercial fridges, as well IT asset management solutions.^[19] SRS locations in Australasia address the growing social and environmental problem represented by end-of-life computers and other information technology equipment with locations in Australia, India, Dubai, and South Africa.^[20][21]

Municipal Recycling[edit]

Sims Metal Management also recycles post-consumer materials through a 20-year recycling contract with the New York City Department of Sanitation, which became effective in January 2009.^[22] Under this contract, the company is responsible for all curb-side recycling material, including all plastic, glass and metal on behalf of the City of New York. Packer trucks owned and operated by New York City deliver recyclables as a 26 commingled product to the company's facilities. The commingled product then is processed using a series of screens, magnets, eddy currents, optical sorters and conveyors. The recyclables are separated and sorted into ferrous and non-ferrous metals, different plastic resins, glass and residue. Then the recycled materials are shipped to US and non-US markets.^[23]

In December 2013, Sims Metal Management opened a state of the art recycling facility at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal on the Upper New York Bay in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Sims Municipal Recycling (SMR) managed construction of a new 11-acre recycling center on the Brooklyn waterfront from 2010 to 2013. SMR worked with geotechnical engineers to develop structural fill blends using 'mole rock' from NYC tunneling projects mixed with recycled glass aggregate (RGA). More than 5,000 tons of RGA were blended with 20,000 tons of mole rock and used to elevate sections of the site by 4 feet, thereby protecting buildings and equipment against sea level rise and storm surges.^[24]

Environmental Sustainability[edit]

The energy savings generated by Sims Metal Management were in excess of 14.3 million MWh, enough to power around 4.3 million average households.^[25] Saving this energy also prevented the emission of 15.2 million metric tons of CO2 to the atmosphere, equivalent to that absorbed by 15 million trees over a 100-year life span.^[26]

In 2013, Sims Metal Management was nominated as one of the world's 100 most sustainable companies at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland for the fifth Year in a row.^[27] The company also joined as an Index Component in the World Index of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI).^[28] Sims has participated in numerous voluntary sustainability disclosures including the Carbon Disclosure Project for the past eight years and the Carbon Disclosure Project's Water Disclosure initiative for the past three years.^[29] The company was also recently added to the Euronext Vigeo World 120 index for exemplary corporate social responsibility.^[30]

Sims is heavily focused on reducing the potential risk of fire at their scrap metal recycling facilities. In light of the stockpiled material fires which occurred in 2013 at the company's Redwood City, California^[31] and Jersey City, New Jersey^[32] locations, Sims has considered factors such as stockpile size and the use of technology such as heat sensors.

References[edit]

1. ^[1]
2. ^Sims Metal Management About Us
3. ^ ^abHistory Sims Metal Management
4. ^SEC Filings NYSE
5. ^SEC Filings NYSE
6. ^SEC Filings NYSE
7. ^Sims Pacific Metals About UsArchived 2014-05-27 at the Wayback Machine
8. ^Sims Metal Management 20F
9. ^American RecyclerArchived 2008-10-11 at the Wayback Machine
10. ^[2]
11. ^Reuters, Metal Management Completes Merger with Sims Group Limited
12. ^Sims Metal Management Scrap Ferrous Metal
13. ^Sims Metal Management Scrap Non-Ferrous Metal
14. ^Sims Metal Management Capabilities
15. ^Sims Metal Management Transportation and Logistics
16. ^Bloomberg Businessweek Company Overview
17. ^Sims Metal Management Electronics Recycling
18. ^Recycling Today E-StewardsArchived 2014-05-23 at the Wayback Machine
19. ^Sims Metal Management Electronics Recycling
20. ^Recycling Today Secondary Commodities Middle EastArchived 2014-05-23 at the Wayback Machine
21. ^Recycling Today Middle East Conference Electronics RecyclingArchived 2014-05-23 at the Wayback Machine
22. ^Waste Management World, Opening for Sims Facility in New York
23. ^Sims Metal Management Sunset Park Facility
24. ^Sims Metal Management Sunset Park Facility
25. ^Sims Metal Management Social Responsibility
26. ^Sims Metal Management Social Responsibility
27. ^Sims Metal Management Sustainability
28. ^Business Wire, Sims Metal Management Added to Dow Jones Sustainability
29. ^Sims Metal Management Sustainability
30. ^2014 Euronext Vigeo World 120 CSR Index
31. ^Fernandez, Lisa; Cain, Chase (17 December 2013). 'Redwood City Recycling Plant Fire at Sims Metal, 2nd in 5 Weeks'. NBC Bay Area. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
32. ^'MASSIVE FIRE BURNS THROUGH JERSEY CITY RECYCLING PLANT'. ABC 7 NY. 20 August 2013. Retrieved 14 November 2016.

External links[edit]

• Official website