Upgrading Your MRF: What to Consider Before Starting the Process
Many factors should be considered when determining if your MRF requires an upgrade. ‘What are our needs?’ should be the first question in this process.
Upgrading your MRF is serious business and requires a lot of planning and thought prior to beginning the actual process of the upgrade.
Where to Begin
The first thing needed to begin any facility upgrade is a full evaluation of the need for the upgrade. Why do you need to upgrade? Has the volume increased? Have the materials the facility receives changed drastically and sorting needs changed? Has the end user (who accepts your commodities) changed their requirements? Has there been a territory expansion? Has the condition of, or maintenance to, the existing equipment become too large of a portion of the budget? There are any number of things that can trigger the need for an upgrade; however, identifying the reason(s) should be the first step in upgrading your MRF.
Once the high-level project performance goals have been laid out and agreed upon, the appropriate professionals should be contacted to assist with the evaluation. Oftentimes it is helpful to have a third-party help determine your goals. There are several industry experts who can work to evaluate the waste stream, client requirements, permit needs, and develop the means and methods to go from the current status of your business to where you need to go during this growth or change period. These experts will help analyze your current material and equipment sorting approach and determine where you need to be in order to adjust to the business changes; once that is conceptually defined, the next step would be to determine what, if any, building changes would need to be made to accommodate the proposed changes. Let’s not get too far ahead though; let’s get back to what needs to be figured out early in the process.
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