See How a Cubic Yard Box Inspired a Reduction in Bulk Waste Costs by 83%

It All Started with a Cubic Yard Box

It won’t come as any surprise to most folks that bulk waste has high associated disposal costs. We’d like to share a story about a West Coast Aircraft Service Facility client of ours who serves the aircraft industry and the waste they produce is considered hazardous, which adds a whole additional level of complexity to the situation! The story begins with the switch to a Cubic Yard Box!
Jim Kirby supports a Paint Hangar Operations; the paint masking material contains chrome related primers and requires a Class 1 Fire Protection Unit. Their operations use a RotoPac® they rented from KenBay along with a 40 yard roll-off bin. The first round of compaction was done in 55 gallon metal drums, and shipped to their hazardous waste vendor in Tennessee for fuel blend. In addition, the larger materials would be compacted in the RotoPac and then shipped to a local waste vendor and then repackaged into a cubic yard box and ship to Tennessee for fuel blend. There were several associated costs with this approach, and as you can imagine, those costs quickly added up to a big expense.
One day their hazardous waste vendor made a change that sparked a huge savings for Jim’s company. They started requiring the waste be put into a hazardous waste rated cubic yard box instead of the drums and the cubic yard bags they had used historically. It was important to find the most efficient way to accommodate this change. Since there was already collaborative relationship with KenBay and they were already renting a RotoPac, it made sense to start with KenBay. Don Meis, the founder of KenBay spent time researching the new requirements and he presented a simple solution. There was a way to outfit the RotoPac so that it could compact waste directly into the cubic yard box.
The modification included the following:

• Remove the protection shield
• Stabilize the Unit to ensure the cubic yard box doesn’t move during compaction
• Use a shorter RotoPac drum
• Install guard rails to prevent the boxes from expanding as waste was compacted

That did the trick!
So their old process which required 55 gallon metal drums, a 40 yard roll-off bin, liners, transport to local waste vendor and finally shipping to Tennessee in a cubic yard box to fuel blend, was all reduced to onsite waste compaction indoors without exposing the environment to the hazardous waste, with better logistics, better security and lower costs!
We mentioned 83% savings. Can that be true? Let’s take a look at the numbers:

• For the first 6 months of 2015, the costs utilizing the 40 yard roll off and shipping to TN to fuel blend totaled $86,000
• For the second 6 months of 2015, the costs of using a customized RotoPac, compacting on-site and shipping to TN fuel blend totaled $14, 500
• An annual savings of $71,500!

The great part of this story is how they captured all associated costs and eventual savings as a result of making a few changes to their RotoPac compactor. How many of us pay the bills on a monthly basis without wondering how things could be done smarter and more cost effectively?
The costs for the old process came from various sources:

• 55 gallon metal drums
• The roll-off bin had to be kept outdoors, required a lid and regular maintenance and it took up a lot of physical space.
• Liners for the RotoPac
• Labor of transporting waste from paint operations to the outdoors where the 40 yard roll off was kept
• Pulls from the 40 yard roll-off bin cost $15 per pull and they averaged 10 pulls per year.
• Paying the hazardous waste vendor for the labor, fuel and materials required to put waste in a cubic yard box, blend and ship.

In 2016 Jim decided it was time to stop renting the RotoPac from KenBay and purchase it outright and he hasn’t looked back! Contact us at KenBay. Explain your specific sources of waste and we’ll recommend a process that is safe, efficient and cost effective. It would be our pleasure!