Nantucket Landfill Mining

[tdozer]

Nantuckets garbage problem has been getting worse over the past 20 years, then to top it off, the MASS DEP deemed their landfill at capacity. The DEP ordered the landfill to be shut down and capped by 1999. The island had nowhere else to put their garbage so everything had to be trucked to the mainland via ferry. in turn the taxes almost doubled by 2003. This past january, we were contracted to start mining the landfill which consists of only 30% trash and 70% sand which was used as daily cover(crazy isn't it).The landfill covers around 50 acres and contains about 3 million c/yds of trash and sand. By the time we are done mining and screening, the landfill will be reduced to only 15 acres and be contained in new lined cells we are constructing to todays standards. Combined with the new Recycling facility and composting plant now up and running, 85-90% of material coming in gets recycled and only 10-15% is landfill bound. In turn we have a 300 year solution for the islands waste and possiby longer as we begin recycling more types of material. ok enough talkin, now to the iron. We brought one of our older PC400's up from Jersey to start with and a new McCloskey 621 trommel, which we have 2 in operation now. We now have 4 966g's, 2 D6R's a 325BL and a 200clc deere. Heres a few photos to start with. i'm gonna take a bunch more in the near future as soon as i get a free moment.

 

[tdozer]

the cutaway shows how much daily cover they used. all the needed was a couple inches not a couple feet of sand

 

[euclid]

So when you mention mining how does that work? The concept sounds great I wonder if NYC has ever considered such a plan for there mass garbage issue?

 

[humboldt deere]

I bet the smell of that job is awful.

 

[tdozer]

Well, New York has all of new jersey to dump their trash on. Jersey makes too much money to put a stop to it. but if jersey built a super sized composting facility, they could greatly reduce the landfill bound material, charge new york the same money, plus sell the compost they produce as probably the best topsoil in the state. All they look at is the initial cost of building the digester and the rest of the facility.
Our digester is built to handle 200 tons per day and the cost of it and the rest of the facility is millions.
Here is a pic of our digester. It is 12 feet in diameter and 180 feet long. The waste that goes in the top end, comes out 3 to 4 days later as compost.

The smell of the landfill mining is not bad at all, as there has never been any industrial waste or business on the island and there never will be either. The fact that there are no polluting chemicals in the landfill also makes our job easy and safer too.

 

[AtlasRob]

............ only 30% trash and 70% sand ....................................... Combined with the new Recycling facility and composting plant now up and running, 85-90% of material coming in gets recycled and only 10-15% is landfill bound.

Wow, those figures are what the enviromentalists have organisms over.
Incredible to believe they had so much sand to waste expect they assumed the more they dug up to use as cover the bigger the hole to put the garbage in.

Thats going to keep you out of mischief for quite a while. :drinkup

 

[MKTEF]

Interresting post. Thanks tdozer!:drinkup

This is a type of work that we will see a lot more to in the future.

A lot of the landfills can be handled the same way.
With parts of the old filling resycled, all the iron f instance.

The fill can be redused to nearly nothing.

 

[tonka]

Well, New York has all of new jersey to dump their trash on.

Well dirty jerz, now dumps on PA, and now Kentucky. The Company i work for, ESI has 2 brand new landfills, in KY, VA. We also own the largest transfer station in North Jersey(SWTR) in Newark. We are building another one in Kearney on Doremus Ave. We are the only bale and rail supplied land fills in the country. we also are looking into building a transfer stations in Boston Ma, and New Haven Ct. here is our website www.esiwaste.com

 

[tdozer]

AtlasRob,
Those numbers are exactly what the environmentalists love, everybody should love them. Florida DEP has flown to nantucket three times now to use our facility as a model and they want us to design and build 10 new composting facilitys across their state. virginia and delaware are also interested. so we are definately gonna have our hands full as recycling is the way of the future. we need about 1.5 million yard of the sand that comes out of the landfill as fill onsite to fill the pits they dug over the years.

Tonka,
Most of our material going in our lined cells also gets baled. That further saves room in the cell. Those bales are more compact than you will ever get it with the typical landfill compactor, which we also have an old Cat 826C that just gets used to reduce wood waste before it goes through the tub grinder. Speaking of boston, just outside the city, in walpole Mass. we are opening another new landfill/composting facility to accept all bostons food waste. someday we might run into eachother.

Our website is old but here it is, WWW.wasteoptions.com. Sorry but i dont know how to post a link. someday ill get better with this computer gizmo.

 

[tonka]

Nice, our bales run from 2.5 tons to 3.25 tons a piece we have the 6 (2 in use in NJ,4 on order) of the largest garbage balers in the world. Do you guys break open your bails after they get to the cell? We also send everything threw the grinder, wood, household, furniture, everything!
tdozer, what part of jersey are you in?

 

[tdozer]

Our bales are smaller i guess. They are between 1 and 2 tons. We also try to keep them as bales in the lined cell but sometimes one or two get busted when laying them out. I live in chatsworth, in the middle of the pine barrens. Do you grind tires too.

 

[tonka]

Our bales are smaller i guess. They are between 1 and 2 tons. We also try to keep them as bales in the lined cell but sometimes one or two get busted when laying them out. I live in chatsworth, in the middle of the pine barrens. Do you grind tires too.

I'm in Voorhees, well tires slip though now and again buy not alot. Wow we bust open our bales for better dcomp...

 

[tdozer]

the material that our bales are made of, all goes through our digester first. So anything that is decomposable is already gone and turned into compost.so there is no decompable material in them. they are about 98% plastic bags which nobody wants for recycling. if you know of anyone who will buy clean plastic bag bales, please let me know. Bags are our biggest headache, we would love to be able to get rid of them for a profit if possible.
I did a big job in vorhees a few years back, a big housing development right on centennial rd. That job was wild, 15 Volvo A30c's & d's 3 450 hitachi's,4 627's, countless other iron. Our office trailer was more of a bar than an office. Yeah i spent a few nights in there. Hey it was better than tryin to drive all the way home. I wish i had a digital cam back then, some good memories.

 

[tonka]

the material that our bales are made of, all goes through our digester first. So anything that is decomposable is already gone and turned into compost.so there is no decompable material in them. they are about 98% plastic bags which nobody wants for recycling. if you know of anyone who will buy clean plastic bag bales, please let me know. Bags are our biggest headache, we would love to be able to get rid of them for a profit if possible.
I did a big job in vorhees a few years back, a big housing development right on centennial rd. That job was wild, 15 Volvo A30c's & d's 3 450 hitachi's,4 627's, countless other iron. Our office trailer was more of a bar than an office. Yeah i spent a few nights in there. Hey it was better than tryin to drive all the way home. I wish i had a digital cam back then, some good memories.

ah the old folks retirement community:drinkup haha

 

[D5G]

Thats a very very interesting project tdozer, thanks for the pics and looking foward to more pics and updates! Is there a time frame for the work?

 

[AtlasRob]

Plastic bags :Banghead. If a man can find a cost effective way of recyling them into something other than MORE plastic bags he will certainly be on to a winner. It has got so bad in the UK now, supermarkets are trying to find ways to reduce our dependence on them after years of giving them to us as a convienience.

tdozer I had a look your operation via the link you posted :woohoo that is one serious operation and only to be commended. I can easily see why it gets visits as a show case, keep up the good work :thumbsup

 

[tdozer]

Well, as for a time frame, We have another 16 years on our lease of the property. At the rate we are going now, it will take up to 9 years to complete the mining. We are ordering 1 or 2 more McCloskey 621 trommels to speed things up. in the winter the mining comes to a halt, our screens will freeze shut in a matter of minutes so spring summer and fall we have to start hitting it hard.
Thanks to everyone for the great replys and feel free to ask questions.

Jim.

 

[greywynd]

Want me to drop the orders off? McCloskey's plant is about 5 miles at most down the road from me. One of these days I should stop by with the camera.

 

[jimmyjack]

need more help:yup

 

[euclid]

Awesome thread! You know all the I-95 corridor states from Va to NY are in need of these. Pa and Va were the two largest takers of garbage from NY. I know in my area we get garbage from one county and then we haul it through that same county who delievered it to us to King George Va. landfill and I see it as a total racket! Had we had a compost pile we'd keep the profits 100 percent and it would be a good thing.