Forklift operator Rob McGuire moves in to lift the new baler at the BCEP Transfer Station in Pittsfiield so that it can be connected to the electrical hookups and the loading belt on Tuesday, December 7, 2021. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff
Forklift operator Rob McGuire moves in to lift the new baler at the BCEP Transfer Station in Pittsfield so that it can be connected to the electrical hookups and the loading belt on Tuesday, December 7, 2021. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff
Forklift operator Rob McGuire moves in to lift the new baler at the BCEP Transfer Station in Pittsfield so that it can be connected to the electrical hookups and the loading belt on Tuesday. GEOFF FORESTER / Monitor staff
Forklift operator Rob McGuire moves in to lift the new baler at the BCEP Transfer Station in Pittsfiield so that it can be connected to the electrical hookups and the loading belt on Tuesday, December 7, 2021. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff
The BCEP Transfer Station in Pittsfield collects recyclables from four local towns. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff
Forklift operator Rob McGuire moves in to lift the new baler at the BCEP Transfer Station in Pittsfield so that it can be connected to the electrical hookups and the loading belt on Tuesday, December 7, 2021. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff
The heart transplant at the recycling center in Pittsfield is finished.
On Tuesday, the old baler at the Barnstead, Chichester, Epsom, and Pittsfield Transfer Station, 30 years old and fading, had been moved to a nearby hill out back, waiting to be sold for scrap metal. A new one, costing $225,000, took its place, meaning forklifts and rollers were needed to set it down in its new home, on the floor in the middle of the cavernous building.
Moving six tons into place on a cold day takes time. Most of Tuesday, in fact. The new baler — the center of an operation that benefits the four towns — was scheduled to start work on Wednesday, pumping new life into a program that’s mighty proud these days of its brand new ticker.
“We make money because our product is so clean,” said John Keane, administrator at the center. “It’s stored inside so there’s no moisture problem. We’ve had buyers come into check the moisture in the paper and cardboard and we have always passed. Our product is 97 to 98 percent pure.”
Pure is a word used often by Keane and Hugh Curley, the chair of the solid waste committee. It means recyclables — tin cans, aluminum cans, paper, cardboard — are hand sorted at this station into separate bins, while garbage and material that can’t be recycled are tossed aside.
It means the baler’s horizontal belt can move more items more efficiently than a vertical belt, and it means massive bundles, some weighing as much as 1,500 pounds, can be stored neatly and dryly, four bundles stacked up to 15 feet high.
That allows the station to sell its product, pure and neat, for an extended period of time, only shipping their product once 40,000 to 46,000 tons have been amassed.
“We get top dollar for our cycle,” Keane said. “We wait for that amount (of pounds) and we sell it, the whole truckload.”
Other facilities, Keane pointed out, have limited space for storage while trying to sell an inferior product.
“They make lighter bales and they don’t have the storage that we have,” Keane said. “They are limited what they can store, so they won’t get maximum pricing. They only sell the bales they have because they have no more space.”
In recent years, Keane, Curley and his staff have felt the region’s passion for having a well-oiled machine – both in the form of a baler and the operation itself. Residents have seen it as a worthy investment, which is obvious by the new baler’s price tag.
But revenue produced by the transfer station — through sales of recyclables, fees collected for storing and destroying material like tires and air conditionings, and the saving tax dollars by subtracting disposal fees — took the sting out of the purchase price.
The cooperative began 30 years ago, and that’s when the old, reliable machine began its shift. The old baler was so tough that it was essentially the only item standing after a fire at the center years back.
“Most of its value is gone,” Curley said. “We’ll sell it, probably for scrap. It just got to the point where we had gone through multiple repairs, and it was coming to the point of being dangerous.”
Added Keane, “The last couple of years and even before that, we had looked at conceptually buying a new baler and it never happened, for whatever reason. That was between the committee and the administrator at the time.”
Now, it’s reality. The narrow contraption was and remains the lifeblood behind this operation.
A three-man team worked in the cold warehouse, signaling each other through hand gestures and head nods. They raised the behemoth slowly on a forklift, inching it forward on rollers, inching it backward, trying to attach this eager rookie to the conveyor belt and power supply.
Meanwhile, it was business as usual. The engine rumblings and backing-up beeps from heavy equipment — Skid Steers, forklifts, tractors — cut through the chill.
Kearne and Curley explained how the baler works. Simply put, the conveyor belt drops the items into a chamber. Once reaching a specific height, the hydraulic arm sweeps across slowly, squishing anything and everything in its path.
That leftover bundles of paper, cardboard or cans are wrapped, stacked, and ready to go, with a pure-preserving shelter overhead, home until a profitable deal could be reached.
“The old one is gone, back on the hill over there,” Keane said. “We can take the pistons, the motor, maybe the controls for the hydraulic.
“But this one should do it for a while.”
Ray Duckler, our intrepid columnist, focuses on the Suncook Valley. He floats from topic to topic, searching for the humor or sadness or humanity in each subject. A native New Yorker, he loves the Yankees and Giants. The Red Sox and Patriots? Not so much.
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