July/August 1998
What’s in a container? The efficient storage, collection, and transporting of scrap, that’s what. Here’s a look at these essential yet often-overlooked pieces of scrap recycling equipment.
By Lynne Meredith Cohn
Lynne Meredith Cohn is a writer based in Ferndale, Mich.
If you had to list the essential equipment of the scrap processing trade, what would you include? Probably items such as torches, balers, shears, forklifts, cranes, front-end loaders, shredders, and so on.
But what about containers?
They’re the unsung heroes of the scrap recycling industry, yet one of its true workhorses. Just think of all their critical uses: They allow you to store material before and after processing. They give you a secure place to protect material from theft and exposure to the elements. They enable you to collect material at your suppliers’ facilities and ship scrap to consumers in a safe and tidy way. Likewise, they enable your suppliers to transport material to your plant.
In short, containers are the primary equipment for organizing scrap and “the most efficient way of moving scrap from point A to point B,” says a Midwestern processor. In fact, it’s safe to say that, without containers, the scrap recycling industry would be hard-pressed to function. As the processor puts it, containers are “integral to your business” and “part of the expense of entering the business.”
Here’s a quick review of these essential pieces of scrap recycling equipment.
A Container By Any Other Name
There are nearly as many scrap containers as there are kinds of scrap, each with its own unique characteristics that make storing, hauling, and handling scrap a bit easier.
In general, the most common containers used in the scrap industry are self-dumping hoppers, luggers, and roll-off boxes.
Self-Dumping Hoppers. The smallest containers in the bunch, self-dumping hoppers range in capacity from 1/2 to 5 cubic yards. The name of this container is quite accurate in that it needs no help in dumping its load—rocker pins enable it to be easily tipped and emptied, with rocker stops preventing it from tipping too far.
“Self-dumping hoppers are normally used for applications that are in-house in a scrap-generating plant,” says one manufacturer. “Because they’re small, you can go into a machine shop or a metal-working facility and leave three, four, or five 2-yard hoppers.” The supplier simply tosses scrap into the hopper, then the material can be dumped into a larger container—such as a lugger or roll-off—to be hauled away by the scrap processor.
Luggers. According to one container maker, lugger boxes “have been around for years and years” and remain popular in the scrap industry. First developed in the late 1940s or early 1950s, “the lugger was used for more than just scrap applications. It fit well into that situation because you could build a heavy-duty container and didn’t really have to tip it at a severe angle to pull it up on the truck. It had a certain amount of appeal, especially if you were dealing with something that may have had some liquid in it, such as scrap turnings.”
Luggers, which are available in capacities from 5 to 20 cubic yards, also gained—and retain—popularity because they allow processors to leave containers in tighter, smaller spaces than they could reach with roll-off boxes and trucks. As one manufacturer notes, “the lugger truck itself isn’t nearly as long as a roll-off truck. Also, a 20-yard lugger box is only about 190 or so inches long, but a 20-yard standard roll-off box is about 22 feet long.”
Roll-Off Boxes. While there’s no denying the popularity and advantages of using lugger boxes, another manufacturer asserts that scrap processors are increasingly turning to roll-off containers, especially in cases where they’re retiring old containers and buying new ones.
Roll-off boxes, which range from 10 to 100 cubic yards in capacity, are so named because they are indeed rolled on and off tractor trailers. Though they’ve reportedly been around about the same amount of time as luggers, the scrap industry initially tended toward luggers “primarily because the roll-off box was associated with the refuse business rather than the scrap business—one of the reasons being that waste haulers used the 40-yard roll-off boxes a lot,” says a container maker.
Among their advantages, roll-off containers can generally hold more material than lugger boxes, which makes them good choices in situations where high volumes of scrap are generated or transported. “The problem that you run into with a roll-off trailer is that it has to be licensed, tagged and titled, and requires a certain amount of maintenance,” says one manufacturer. Another adds that “weight is a big issue for scrap processors,” meaning that—given the higher capacity of roll-off containers—processors have to be careful that their roll-offs don’t exceed highway weight restrictions.
The roll-off box has come a long way in this regard, says another container maker. “Manufacturers now make the boxes half the length—62 cubic yards can hold a lot of volume but not necessarily weight.”
Container Characteristics
Not surprisingly, containers made for the scrap industry are generally heavier-duty and composed of thicker, wear-resistant metal, predominantly steel, notes another manufacturer. The floor, in particular, must be thicker to withstand the shock of scrap that’s loaded into it. It’s common, for instance, for a roll-off container floor to be made out of 3/16-inch steel plate. Its side posts are typically 11-gauge steel plate, formed three inches deep and five inches wide on 20-inch centers. The side walls can be seven-gauge, while the wheels are 8-inch-diameter heavy-duty steel pipe, 10 inches long.
Prices for containers are generally modest—at least compared with the cost of other scrap processing and handling equipment such as balers, cranes, forklifts, and so on.
A self-dumping hopper, for instance, can run $500 to $1,500, depending on its capacity. A 20-yard lugger can cost $2,200, while 20- to 40-yard roll-off boxes of equivalent thickness and specifications can be $2,500 to $4,500. Larger roll-offs can cost in the neighborhood of $8,500.
Customizations add to the cost, of course. “Prices vary basically by the sizes and options,” says one manufacturer, noting that most scrap processors “want heavier floors, heavier sides—the things that make the container sturdy, make it last.” They also make it more expensive. As the manufacturer notes, “for a 1/4-inch floor and main rails, add $600 to the price of the container.”
But processors should view these costs as an investment, as money spent on products made to last, say container makers. One manufacturer knows of self-dumping hoppers that have been working at the same plant for a dozen years. Another says, “generally, if you buy a heavy-built scrap container, it could last you anywhere from five to seven years. We have customers who have containers that have been working for 15 years.”
These prices, of course, don’t take into account the additional costs of cable hoists, trailer hoists, and the trucks and trailers that will transport the container from one site to another. “For roll-off containers, you need a roll-off truck or roll-off trailers to handle those,” notes a manufacturer. “A roll-off hoist will cost anywhere from $17,000 to $25,000, while a roll-off trailer will cost from $35,000 to $55,000.”
Made to Order
Far from being assembly-line products, many scrap containers are customized to fit the processor’s specific needs.
“Each company’s going to have different specifications,” says one manufacturer. Another notes, “we build a standard model, a heavy-duty model, then a scrapper model, almost exclusively toward the scrap industry.”
“There are all kinds of special containers,” another producer notes. “It depends on what the application is and if there are any environmental restrictions on the material going into the containers.” As an example, he says, “most of our scrap containers don’t have lids on them, but that’s not to say that somebody might not request it,” especially if they’re in an area where storm-water runoff problems mean they can’t have water coming out of containers and running into the streets.
Without a doubt, sealed containers have become more common in U.S. scrap processing operations, mostly due to environmental regulations and ISO 9000 quality assurance requirements. In particular, processors have found the need for containers with built-in reservoirs to catch any fluid runoff and prevent spills.
One Midwestern manufacturer makes just such a container with a false bottom, so that fluid from material such as oily turnings will drain off the scrap and collect in the bottom until it can be pumped out for disposal or recycling.
As this example shows, there’s a container for every specialized scrap processing need—from the most elementary to the most extraordinary. Filling these varied demands is all in a day’s work for containers, the unsung—but now hopefully more appreciated—heroes of the scrap industry.
The Container Crew
Here’s a list of manufacturers who specialize in making a variety of containers for use in the scrap recycling industry:
Apex Welding Inc. (Cleveland), 216/232-6770
Benlee Inc. (Romulus, Mich.), 734/722-8100
Bes-Pac Inc. (Easley, S.C.), 800/726-1439
Bucks Fabricating (Hadley, Pa.), 412/253-3322
Clement Industries Inc. (Minden, La.), 800/562-5948
Fairhill Fabricators Inc. (Lansdale, Pa.), 800/390-7765
Galbreath Inc. (Winamac, Ind.), 219/946-6631
KL Metal Fabricating Inc. (East St. Louis, Ill.), 618/271-6250
Lewisteel Works Inc. (Wrens, Ga.), 800/521-5239
Philippi-Hagenbuch Inc. (Peoria, Ill.), 309/697-9200
Steco Inc. (Enid, Okla.), 405/237-7433 •
What’s in a container? The efficient storage, collection, and transporting of scrap, that’s what. Here’s a look at these essential yet often-overlooked pieces of scrap recycling equipment.