Sennebogen LLC, Stanley, North Carolina, has appointed Jason Jones as its Americas’ sales team manager. In this position, Jones will be responsible for developing and leading the Sennebogen sales network in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and South America. 

“[Jason] has a proven record of achievement in growing sales and share in industrial markets by developing the right processes and tools that enhance customer experience at every level,” says Constantino Lannes, president of Sennebogen LLC.

According to a news release from Sennebogen, Jones has been managing sales and marketing teams in the steel industry for more than 15 years. Through his previous positions, he is well-connected to a variety of business sectors, including scrap, recycling, steel and pulp industries. “We’ve been very impressed by Jason’s strategic approach to market development and account management,” Lannes says. “He is very knowledgeable of the business needs of dealers’ and customer organizations for commercial success.”

Jones says he sees his new role as a way to be a “voice of the customer” to guide the company’s relations with dealers and end users. “We are continuing to develop an increased focus on individual needs of specific industry sectors and businesses,” Jones says. 

Right after joining Sennebogen’s sales team, Jones attended the ConExpo-Con/Agg 2020 event, which took place March 10-14 in Las Vegas. Jones says he was able to meet many of Sennebogen’s dealers and customers at that event. “ConExpo was a great opportunity for me to get firsthand knowledge of Sennebogen’s value to its customers,” he says.

Over the past month, the number of fatal incidents involving solid waste collection vehicles and employees has increased considerably, according to data compiled by the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA). Since March 14, the association says it is aware of at least 16 fatal incidents in the United States resulting in 18 fatalities, including eight in which a solid waste employee has been killed.

SWANA says that many workers may be concerned about the COVID-19 pandemic and that increased residential volume and operational changes may be disrupting routines and impacting productivity. The association says that despite COVID-19 concerns, solid waste collection workers must remain compliant with applicable safety rules and best practices on the job, including:

• wear a safety belt; 
• never be on the riding step when the truck is backing; 
• don’t use a cellphone when the truck is moving; 
• always wear personal protective equipment (PPE); and
• comply with speed limits and other traffic laws.

“SWANA had observed a notable decrease in fatal incidents in the first two months of 2020 compared to the past two years, but starting in mid-March, we have seen a rapid increase in the frequency of these tragic events," SWANA Executive Director and CEO David Biderman says. "This coincides with the COVID-19 pandemic. Although solid waste workers are legitimately concerned about their health and the health of their families, they need to be safety-focused on the route and in postcollection operations."

“We remain diligent with all safety aspects of the job now with the added safety features of latex gloves and masks,” Sal Mastriani, director of risk management of Teaneck, New Jersey-based Interstate Waste Services. “Our team [has] responded impressively. Although we are troubled about an increase in fatal incidents nationally, we are fortunate that our incidents have decreased. In addition, I would urge everyone to keep an eye out for emotional stress and elevated anxiety among frontline workers, which may have contributed to some of the recent collisions others have seen.”

Since March 14, fatal incidents involving solid waste collection vehicles and personnel have occurred in Arizona, California, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.

C&D recycling is critical throughout the U.S., but its importance becomes amplified in geographies where space is at a premium. One such location is on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

Although it has long been a pressing issue in Maui, the need to preserve landfill space became even more pronounced in 2016 when the only C&D landfill on the island closed, leaving companies without a permitted location to take excess inert materials.

Realizing the need for a solution, Pete Sullivan opened Kihei, Hawaii-based Hawaii Materials Recycling (HMR) in 2018 to help recycle concrete, asphalt, rock, dirt and clean sand. Sullivan, who has also served as the owner of PB Sullivan Construction since he established the company in 1994, says opening a C&D recycling facility focused on inert waste was a natural extension of his construction company’s operations.

“We have been crushing and screening rock, concrete and asphalt on job sites to support our construction company since 2006,” he says. “In 2016, the only C&D landfill on the island closed and there was no other permitted place to take materials. Quite often, there is a surplus of excavated rock or dirt on a job site. Ideally, you would take this material to another job site that requires the material, however, that is not always available, so it was a natural progression to open the facility.”

Although the need was clear, getting permission to open the recycling site, which sits on 10 acres HMR leases from landowner Haleakala Ranch, did come with its own set of challenges, Sullivan says.

He says HMR had to wait a year to get an initial permit to operate crushers on-site and about three years to get the special use permit from the county of Maui to use agricultural land for a recycling facility as well as three years to get a solid waste permit from the state’s department of health. He says to help facilitate the permitting process, HMR utilized a team of environmental, traffic, solid waste, civil engineering and land planning consultants, without whom “this process could have been much more painful,” according to Sullivan.

Getting the green light

Once HMR was able to procure the necessary permits, operations commenced in April 2018.

Sullivan says that in addition to his own construction company, other construction and demolition contractors, trucking companies and waste management providers are HMR’s biggest customers. These customers drop off C&D materials to the facility, with some leaving loaded with the company’s recycled materials to use on job sites. Additionally, the site is open to homeowners who come in for topsoil, wall rock and other products.

To process the 108,690 tons of material the facility received in 2019, HMR employs two fulltime employees and brings in several more when needed to help with crushing operations. Sullivan says the company also employs a range of different specialized recycling equipment to meet its needs.

“We use equipment from our construction company, and we favor Caterpillar,” he says. “We load the crushers with either a 330, 336, 345 or 349 Caterpillar excavator. A 972 Caterpillar wheel loader supports the crushing operation and loads outgoing trucks. As for the crushing and screening, a typical setup begins with a Komatsu 550 as our primary jaw crusher, which feeds a Powerscreen 1800 two-deck scalping screen. Then, material goes into a Pegson 1300 cone crusher that feeds into a Powerscreen 2100 three-deck screen that recirculates back to the cone and also feeds MGL or Edge stacking conveyors for stockpiling.”

Saving money and the environment

According to Sullivan, being able to recycle C&D materials on Maui has contributed to significant cost savings on the island.

“The cost of concrete here starts at about $150 per cubic yard. We continue to recycle this concrete and turn it into aggregate base course and a fine material used with mortar for masonry work. We also divert previously landfilled or fugitively dumped dirt, rock and asphalt,” he says. “Years ago, we were told by the Maui Department of Environmental Management that the cost to create landfill space was about $77 per cubic yard, so for every cubic yard that we can divert from landfill, we like to think that we are saving the people of this island that money.”

According to Sullivan, an average truckload of 25 tons with rock and dirt pieces larger than three inches can be dropped off at the facility for a tip fee of about $125. At the landfill, that would cost $1,875, he says. Beyond the tip fee savings, Sullivan says that the company’s customers appreciate that HMR is conveniently located in the growing area of South Maui, which has helped contractors save money through reduced trucking costs.

“Our tipping fees are so much lower than at the municipal landfill, we’ve heard people say, ‘[Using HMR] is a no-brainer,’” Sullivan says. “People find it amazing that we do what we do without being a landfill or quarry. … Since our opening, we have diverted from the landfill and from fugitive dumping in gulches and elsewhere and supported construction projects with around 200,000 tons of recycled materials. This value can be expanded into lessened trucking costs and by having trucks loaded both inbound and outbound from the facility, which saves on road wear, lessens traffic and reduces fuel consumption and emissions.”

Beyond helping protect landfill space and lessen trucking costs, HMR works to keep as green of a footprint as possible.

Sullivan says that HMR’s location, which sits in close proximity to waterways that lead to the ocean, presents some challenges, but that the company has been able to manage runoff with site grading and a retention basin.

The company has also been able to leverage its neighbor, the Maui County Wastewater Reclamation Facility, to use reclaimed water for dust suppression, which helps cut down on water waste.

“The R-1 water from the wastewater reclamation facility supplies us with all of the water that we need for dust suppression at a lesser rate than potable water. We were fortunate to have an R-1 watermain running adjacent to our site and were able to install a 2-inch meter with minimal costs. … Being located next to the wastewater facility has actually been a plus because of the stigma attached to these types of facilities—I believe that our facility represents the highest and best use of this land,” Sullivan says.

In addition to using recycled wastewater, the company also relies on solar power to help minimize its energy footprint. HMR employs the power of photovoltaic panels to help power its operations. Sullivan says the scale and scale house office currently are 100 percent powered by solar panels, with a generator for backup if necessary.

While HMR’s sustainability focus has made sense from a financial standpoint, Sullivan says the ability to preserve Maui’s natural resources is what’s most important.

“If we looked at a yard of concrete that weighs about 2.2 tons, and you think about the materials it takes to make up that yard of concrete, I don’t care what form it’s in, it should never go in the landfill,” Sullivan said in a recent release. “So, if we can avoid that and we can process it here, we’re creating less of a scar on the island.”

Work in progress

As HMR is only coming up on its second anniversary of operations, there is a lot of room to grow, according to Sullivan.

Because the company is located next to a wastewater treatment facility, the organization is currently looking at ways to recycle organics and sewer sludge. Additionally, HMR presently only recycles the metals that are embedded in the concrete it receives since its solid waste permit is specific in allowing only for inert materials. However, Sullivan says HMR is currently communicating with the state’s department of health about modifying the organization’s permit to include the ability to recycle metals.

Although it’s still early days for formal C&D recycling in Maui, Sullivan says that being able to offer a more mindful way of managing materials is one of the core reasons he got into the business.

“I believe that we are fortunate to live here, and that the opportunities that are created in this environment and community have greatly benefitted us as a company, so we think we should reciprocate in any way that we can. We work to supply the community with superior service and pricing for tipping fees and outgoing products that is well below what is offered through the standard means.”

This article originally appeared in the March/April issue of Construction & Demolition Recycling. The author is the editor of Construction & Demolition Recycling magazine and can be reached at aredling@gie.net.

The Washington-based American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) has reported an 18.1 percent decline in steel output in the United States for the week ending April 11, 2020.

The week-on-week decrease marks the third in a row for steelmakers in the U.S., who are reacting to dwindling manufacturing activity and steel demand caused by reactions to the COVID-19 coronavirus.

According to AISI data, COVID-19-related mill cutbacks began the week ending March 28, when crude steel output fell by 9.8 percent compared to the week before.

By that week, domestic raw steel production was 1.67 million net tons at a mill operating capacity rate of 71.6 percent. In addition to representing a nearly 10 percent week-on-week decline, the figure represented a 12.7 percent decrease from output in the comparable week in 2019.

In the following week, ending April 4, domestic raw steel production of 1.53 million net tons represented another 8.4 percent decline. Figures released by AISI for the week ending April 11 now show the steepest drop yet.

The mill output cuts in the three weeks combined show a plunge of more than 32 percent, and a mill capacity rate that dropped from 79.4 percent at the start of the timeframe to 56.1 percent at the conclusion of it.

Looking back one year, the 1.256 million tons of crude steel made the week ending April 11, 2020, was down 33.6 percent from the nearly 1.9 million tons produced in the same week in 2019.

Year-to-date production through April 11 stands at 26.3 million tons, at an average capacity rate of 77.9 percent. That is down 4.9 percent from the nearly 27.7 million tons made during the same period last year, when the capacity rate was 81.5 percent.

Based on a mid-month to mid-month comparison, production in the Northeast region appears hardest hit. According to AISI, that region produced 225 million tons of steel the week ending March 14, 2020, bit its output fell by nearly 54 percent to 104 million tons by the week ending April 11.

By contrast, output in the AISI’s Southern region dropped by about 21 percent, in its Great Lakes region by about 37 percent, and in its Midwest region by nearly 40 percent.

A survey of construction job sites by a security camera services provider showed construction in the South was least likely to have completely shut down, while several states in the Northeast were the hardest hit by complete stoppages.