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Employees sort recycling materials with the help of machines in the massively redone Mr. Murph (MRF, Material Recovery Facility) at the Tulsa Recycle & Transfer Facility in Tulsa.
Machines sort recycling materials in the redone Murph at the Tulsa Recycle & Transfer Facility in Tulsa.
VP of Recycling Robert Pickens leads a tour in the massively redone Murph (MRF Material Recovery Facility at the Tulsa Recycle & Transfer Facility.
A robotic arm sorts the recycling in the massively redone Murph (MRF- Material Recovery Facility on March 3, 2022 at the Tulsa Recycle & Transfer Facility in Tulsa, OK.
Robotic arms sort the recycling in the massively redone Murph (MRF- Material Recovery Facility on March 3, 2022 at the Tulsa Recycle & Transfer Facility in Tulsa, OK.
Machines sort recycling in the massively redone Murph (MRF- Material Recovery Facility on March 3, 2022 at the Tulsa Recycle & Transfer Facility in Tulsa, OK.
What was supposed to be a holiday gift came a little later than expected, Robert Pickens said, but the grand reveal elicited the same excitement.
“It was kind of like Christmas,” American Waste Control’s vice president of recycling said of seeing material moving along the sorting machine’s conveyer belts for the first time since a major fire. “Life is finally kind of normal again.”
Mr. Murph 2.0, the Material Recovery Facility that sorts recyclables deposited in Tulsa’s blue curbside bins, started up with a roar this week as teams who had been carefully testing the machine’s components after installing its “brain“ gave the all-clear to run the whole system.
The old MRF was destroyed in an April fire investigators traced to an incorrectly-disposed lithium ion battery. Some batteries are recyclable at specific locations, such as Best Buy or Batteries Plus, but not at AWC’s Tulsa Recycle & Transfer Center.
The rechargeable culprit fell into a catching pan and flickered into a flame overnight, when the facility was closed, and grew into an inferno that made rubber morph like lava and twisted steel beams.
Recyclables in Tulsa have been sent to the same place as the city’s trash — Covanta Tulsa’s waste-to-energy furnace — for the past 11 months, but separate pickup for recycling and trash restarted in January.
Pickens said Friday all the city’s recyclables are once again feeding Mr. Murph.
In full operation since Wednesday, the system isn’t quite yet up to speed, processing about 42,000 pounds of recycling an hour compared to a desired 53,000, Pickens said, but that’s expected to increase over time. Technicians are making final adjustments in the expanded and shifted set-up as well as calibrating nine robots, one of which is the first of its kind to be installed in the world, Pickens said.
Oregon-based Bulk Handling Systems’ Collaborative Robot, or CoBot, has two mechanical arms that suction onto a desired object moving along a belt and toss it into a bin with a quick puff.
Other artificially intelligent robots on the line include optical sorters and accompanying machines that could make any arachnophobe high-tail it out of the warehouse, AWC’s vice president, Paul Ross, joked. The encapsulated machines have viewing panels that reveal a couple quick-moving sorting robotics with spider-like elbows.
The addition of the air systems has made for a different kind of chorus in the facility, but Ross said it’s all “music to our ears.”
The average build time for a facility comparable to Tulsa’s — which was the most advanced MRF in the state before the fire and is now the most advanced MRF in a five state area: Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Louisiana and Arkansas — is 18-22 months, Pickens said. But thanks to AWC’s partners, the project’s timeline was expedited.
The process will continue in the coming months as BHS’ Nashville-based National Recovery Technologies pores over data reports and uploads changes to the machines to make them more efficient while techs work on the ground. AWC now also has access to detailed data on what kind of recyclables are being processed though each machine, which Pickens said will benefit the company greatly when it comes to targeted public education.
The community-wide setback and $11.6 million-and-growing damage that tiny battery caused unfortunately hasn’t stopped batteries from coming in through residents’ recycling, Pickens said, but in addition to education, AWC is planning to install a fire suppression system to prevent a repeat of history. Pickens said the system, from Michigan-based Fire Rover, monitors heat signatures and uses remote-controlled cannons to proactively coat an area that spikes above a certain temperature in flame-fighting foam.
Pickens said the recycling stream’s cleanliness was better than he expected upon return, but there’s always room for improvement. How “clean” a stream is isn’t necessarily in reference to squeaky clean food tubs, but whether the items are actually accepted as recyclable.
Watching for only a few moments, one could see non-recyclable items like fake flowers, half a lime, a dirty diaper and soiled paper towels roll past on a quickly moving conveyer belt. A pile of non-recyclable film plastics like grocery sacks and shrink wrap grew tall in a diversion bin headed for the trash, and tiny bits of shredded paper, which are too small for the system to process, floated on conveyer belts.
Pickens said a load of items that appeared to be leftover from a home improvement project caused a hold-up on the line earlier in the day as workers sorted out wood and screws.
Pickens said he thinks most egregious items come from households that use their recycling bins as a second trash can, but he stressed that clean recycling streams help everyone.
“This system was not made to sort trash from recyclables,” Pickens said. “It was made to sort recycling.”
Pickens encouraged residents to follow what he considers Mr. Murph’s mantra: “When in doubt, check it out, and if you don’t want to check it out, throw it out,” he said.
The city of Tulsa encourages residents to focus on four groups of items accepted in blue bins: aluminum and steel cans, paper and cardboard items, plastic bottles and jugs and glass jars and bottles.
A comprehensive recycling guide is available through the Metropolitan Environmental Trust online at metrecycle.com/directory. For a physical copy, call 918-584-0584 or email met@metrecycle.com.
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I write because I care about people and peace, and I believe the most informed people make the best decisions. I joined the Tulsa World in 2019 to cover breaking news, and I currently cover crime and courts. Phone: 918-581-8455
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Employees sort recycling materials with the help of machines in the massively redone Mr. Murph (MRF, Material Recovery Facility) at the Tulsa Recycle & Transfer Facility in Tulsa.
Machines sort recycling materials in the redone Murph at the Tulsa Recycle & Transfer Facility in Tulsa.
VP of Recycling Robert Pickens leads a tour in the massively redone Murph (MRF Material Recovery Facility at the Tulsa Recycle & Transfer Facility.
A robotic arm sorts the recycling in the massively redone Murph (MRF- Material Recovery Facility on March 3, 2022 at the Tulsa Recycle & Transfer Facility in Tulsa, OK.
Robotic arms sort the recycling in the massively redone Murph (MRF- Material Recovery Facility on March 3, 2022 at the Tulsa Recycle & Transfer Facility in Tulsa, OK.
Machines sort recycling in the massively redone Murph (MRF- Material Recovery Facility on March 3, 2022 at the Tulsa Recycle & Transfer Facility in Tulsa, OK.
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