Emmet County

Challenges

Struggles with Staffing and Seasonality 

Like many recyclers, even prior to the enactment of China’s National Sword policy that raised the threshold for the quality of imported materials destined for recycling, and later the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Emmet County struggled with staffing. The facility managed with an assortment of temporary employees, sourced from its relationships with a group of special-needs adults and work release and community service programs. But even these sources of staffing were unreliable, and becoming increasingly limited in terms of when and how many workers they could provide. 

Emmet County’s management team was in contact with staffing agencies on a daily basis addressing employee no-shows and the MRF’s need for more labor. Joshua Brubacher, operations manager, estimates the county spent anywhere from an hour to a few hours a day dealing with labor challenges, and the situation never seemed to change. 

As a summertime tourist destination, seasonality is another factor affecting Emmet County’s operations. Material volumes are higher in the warmer months, when visitors flock to the region, which exacerbates the labor squeeze. 

Despite the seasonal variability, the municipality’s overall low volumes and geographical isolation from coastal ports meant Emmet County had to identify markets for recyclables locally as opposed to shipping materials overseas. The facility was forced to send material to a different MRF in the summer of 2020 because of a backlog in its ability to process everything coming in. The combination of these various business impacts stemming from labor shortages prompted the county to explore technology investments to increase efficiency. 

Solution

Cost-Effective Robotic Sorting Systems Supplied by Industry Leader 

Emmet County has a longstanding relationship with consultant RRS, who helped out with the evaluation of different technology upgrades for the facility. This process is something Emmet County undertakes routinely to ensure it is keeping up with the latest technology innovations. The county considers itself on the forefront of recycling technology compared with other municipalities, thanks in part to RRS. 

During the bid process, Emmet County was able to assess pieces of technology from different providers versus pursuing an overall integrator strategy. This allowed the team to choose what it considered the specific pieces of equipment best suited for its operation. An AMP competitor bid on the full package of sourcing and installing everything from the conveyors to control panels to robots, but Emmet County felt strongly that AMP’s robots were the best fit given AMP’s expertise in AI and adaptability to different materials. The municipality ultimately awarded the new sort line work to another company, but only on the condition that they work with AMP to install its robots.

“We knew AMP was the leader in the robot world, and we found robots to be more cost-effective than optical sorters,” said Andrea Tolzdorf, Department of Public Works director. The municipality installed three AMP Cortex™ high-speed intelligent robotics systems to sort PET, HDPE, cartons, aluminum, and mixed plastics on its container lines. Many MRFs use robots for quality control, but Emmet County installed them for its primary sort.

Brubacher says the MRF hasn’t had down time in a year due to service issues, and the robots are simple to use and maintenance free. The AMP Service team has visited the facility a few times since installation and has been accessible when needed. Brubacher has been pleased with AMP’s efforts to make the robots even easier to maintain with ongoing modifications and improvements to wear parts. 

Results

Labor Efficiency Jumps 60% along with an 11% Increase in Material Recovery

The addition of robots brought vast improvements to Emmet County’s labor efficiency. The same amount of material processing takes significantly less time, and because of the robots’ accuracy and precision, there’s no need to loop the material with humans on the line to achieve the high levels of quality the recycling program is known for. Robots, at a pace close to 90 picks per minute, are accomplishing in three hours what would normally take human sorters a full eight-hour day. 

Because it’s a tourist destination, the region’s population triples in the summer. Last year, before the addition of the robots, Emmet County had 2,000 yards of mixed containers flowing out its back door through the tipping floor that it had to send to another MRF because it couldn’t keep up with the volumes. But now, the facility is not only staying on top of its incoming material—saving $15,000 by not having to send it elsewhere—it also has the capacity to take on more. For example, Emmet County is accepting material from a MRF in nearby Alpena, which can’t process everything it has coming in.

Brubacher has been particularly impressed with the performance of the surge hopper, a part of the system that helps to level out material flow. If there’s a surge of incoming material, customers can divert it to a hopper that functions as a holding tank; it can be released later onto the belt for processing. “It’s amazing how well and efficiently the surge hopper works. The more we run it, the less time we’re actually spending with it. It fills up, our people walk away, and we let the robots do the work. Whether it be minutes or seconds, we empty it sooner every week. There are more picks per minute, and it seems like it’s only getting faster.”

Emmet County is more focused on efficiency than increased capacity and throughput, but since the addition of robots, in the first eight months of 2021 compared with the same period in 2020, the MRF has processed three tons, or 20%, more aluminum; 10 tons, or 11%, more PET; 0.3 tons, or about 1%, more NHDPE; and six tons, or 16%, more CHDPE—capturing 11% more material overall. 

Results 

More Full-Time Employees, Consistency During COVID

With robots, Emmet County was able to adjust its operations to continue processing as normal during the pandemic with about half of its previous staffing. The MRF was able to bring on all of its long-term temps as full-time county employees with benefits, an achievement the team is particularly proud of. “We would not have gotten through the last year without robots. We didn’t have to rely on any temporary workers during COVID, and we’ve become more confident in the staffing we need with the help of automation,” said Tolzdorf.  

“With robots, everything is so much more systematic now,” added Lindsey Walker, recycling outreach, market development, and commercial accounts specialist. 

Results 

Adaptability that Facilitates Experimentation and Relationship Building 

Looking to the future, and knowing the steam is always evolving, robots provide Emmet County’s team with the assurance they’ll be able to handle it, and its use of robots enables the operation to be more experimental. For example, Emmet County worked with Purecycle, a recycler of polypropylene, to create two sample bales of the material, which brands and manufacturers are eager to purchase for use in their products. It was seamless to program the robots to identify and pick polypropylene and open up one of its bunkers for the project and then switch them back to sorting what they were previously. Emmet is increasingly able to apply a “sort for value” matrix to the material it processes, prioritizing based on commodity value. Polypropylene would otherwise wind up in a 1-7 plastics bale with a very low value. The program is interested in the market development around PET thermoforms as well. 

In this way, Walker considers the robots relationship builders. “Bringing people into our facility to see the robots is a huge opportunity. We consider ourselves an incubator and leader in public sector advancements, so we jump at any chance to share AMP’s technology with plastics recyclers in our region, like Petoskey Plastics or East Jordan Plastics. If we—a small, dual-stream facility in northern Michigan—can leverage public and private sector investment to benefit from cutting-edge technology, others can as well.”

Ninety-five percent of Emmet County’s recycled material remains Michigan, and the small portion that doesn’t still finds a regional home. It’s an example of a vibrant, local circular economy. According to Walker, “It’s all part of our recycling promise to the community: if you recycle properly, it’s going to come through our system and be sorted efficiently and wind back up in the products you rely on. We listen to consumers about what they want to recycle beyond #1 and #2 plastic bottles, like cartons and yogurt cups, and identify buyers and end markets for these recycled commodities.” The capabilities of AMP’s systems make it easy to begin sorting new materials once they find buyers.

The importance of keeping material in use locally came into focus during the pandemic, when household products like toilet paper became hard to keep stocked. Ensuring consumers understand the connection between what they recycle and the availability of end products—and leveraging technology to close the loop—is key to Emmet County’s mission.