When someone says "Look what the wind blew in!" to Judson Whitehurst, he pays a little more attention than most people would.
Whitehurst is the owner and operator of EJE Recycling and Disposal in Greenville, North Carolina, not far from the Atlantic coast. EJE started as a small recycling yard, he says, but everything changed when Hurricane Floyd blew into Greenville with category 4 winds in September 1999.
"That was the flood of the century for people in these parts," Whitehurst claims. "When the clean-up started, they made us a staging site for this county. Once all the material was here, they asked if we could landfill it here instead of transporting it to another site"
Neighboring counties also started coming to EJE to dispose of their storm debris. The landfill business quickly became a major part of the EJE operation.
"Now we do a complete disposal as a landfill, transfer station and recycle centre. We do mainly construction and demolition waste and we specialize in recycling steels and papers."
Whitehurst soon realized that maximizing the life of his landfill had to be a priority for long-term success, so he went to work to "get ahead of the curve." His plan to divert as much material as possible to other streams and to make the best use of his landfill capacity led him to the prospect of acquiring a new primary shredder.
"Landfills are hard to get permitted now, and it's just going to get harder. I started looking at shredders to divert more material into recycling and reduce the volume of any remaining material. Public perception is also key; it's important for the public to see you making the effort to add life to the landfill."
Over the past year or so, Whitehurst claims he ran demonstration units of "every shredder that's out there. But every one of them could only produce maybe a third of what they projected." He looked a machines rated from 50 to 100 tons/hour, but generally found that the projections only applied to a limited range of materials. For the kind of mixed materials that EJE processes, "anything the wind might blow in," many machines slowed down to 20 or 30 tons/hour while others were simply unable to process the material. Mattresses, roofing, carpet, hydro poles and cables were especially challenging.
Continuing his search, Whitehurst discovered the website for the PRI-MAX line of multi-material primary shredders from SSI Shredding Systems. SSI, he says, brought a different approach to his problem.
"Most of the others I talked to would simply quote a shredder on the size of machine I asked for or on the money I had in mind. SSI really helped us up the learning curve."
In fact, the shredder that EJE operates now is not the one Whitehurst first demo'd from SSI. "I thought I needed a smaller machine, a single-shaft model. They told me up front they didn't believe it would do the job but they went along with me on the demo. Well, the throughput rate was right but bulky materials were still a problem."
Terri Ward, SSI’s Director of Sales, explained how the double-shaft design of SSI's PRI-MAX PR-4000 shredder was better suited to the mix of materials Whitehurst had to process. The twin shafts are more aggressive on the materials than a single-shaft machine. As a result, the self-feeding action is more effective.
As it happened, a PR-4000 shredder was on the job at a large municipal site in New York, not too far from Greenville. Like EJE, the New York site was processing bulky materials ranging from mattresses and couches to large tree stumps. Based on its success, Whitehurst took delivery of the PR 4000 for his operation.
"…and I haven't looked back. I get, on average, 50 to 55 tons of C&D material processed per hour, just as SSI projected. I was very impressed with those people; they know their business. They didn't do a projection for wood materials, logs and stumps, but there it runs 35 to 38 tons per hour. They really opened my eyes."
The EJE unit is also equipped with SSI's mobile package, so now Whitehurst is intending on more custom work at remote customer sites. He recently completed a large contract for the state DOT and looks forward to more work from the department soon. The mobility of the PR-4000, he says, gives him more options for setting up in the EJE yard, too.
"This is a good machine for asbestos material, too," he says. "A high-speed grinder produces a lot of dust but, with the low-speed operation of the shredder, there's no airborne debris."
Whitehurst is continuing to work with SSI to customize his PR-4000 for even higher productivity. Meanwhile, he is an active participant in the emergency planning programs for several counties in his area.
Next time a big wind blows into Greenville, Judson Whitehurst is going to be ready!
Based in Wilsonville, Oregon, SSI has relentlessly extended the limits of shredding applications since 1981. With more than a quarter century experience, SSI has designed, built and supported unique shredding solutions all over the world. Today, SSI supports its products in 46 countries and employs over 120 people, and is recognized as an industry leader in the design and manufacture of one-, two-, and four-shaft shredders and high density compaction systems to meet the diverse needs of industrial, municipal, and hazardous environments.
| Number of Shredder Shafts | 2 |
| Number weld on cutters | 6, 8, or 10 |
| Cutter Type | Heavy Duty |
| Shaft Length Effective | 94" |
| Number of Hydraulic Drive(s) per shaft | 1 |
| Hydraulic Power Unit Prime Mover - Power (HP) -Type |
450-600 Diesel |
| Shaft Speed Maximum / Minimum | 40 / 25 rpm |
| Hopper Loading Height Range | 11’ and up |
| Level Hopper Capacity | 6 cu. yd. |
| Hydraulic System | Hydrostatic, 4900 psi max system operating pressure |
For more information on the PRI-MAX PR-4000-XD primary shredder or any other equipment from SSI Shredding Systems, please contact us at:
9760 SW Freeman Drive
Wilsonville, OR 97070 USA
Tel: 503-682-3633 Fax: 503-682-1704
Toll-free: 1-800-537-4733
email: sales@ssiworld.com
www.ssiworld.com
