[greenyes] Re: MRF Costs

[JRay3@no.address]

Hello Justin, 
For 'only' 50 tpd, you might investigate a Ptarmigan mobile sort line.  These are 40' long picking lines permanently mounted on a trailer frame, with a full-width infeed conveyor and surge hopper for loading.  They have a magnetic tail pulley, and five sorting stations on each side, accomodating a maximum of 12 workers.  
Two cubic yard self-dumping hoppers fit perfectly under each station, and the only problem with that setup is swapping out the full hoppers fast enough when the line is fully staffed.  The sorting and loading conveyors are powered by infinitely adjustable hydraulic drives, between 0 and 90 feet per minute, if I recall correctly.  New Ptarmigans retailed for over $120k, but good used machines have been purchased for @ $40k.  They were built to bulletproof specifications by Krause MFG in Bellingham, WA (a major MRF supplier).  

If your Taj Mahal is a pit-style transfer station, you may have an excellent opportunity to adopt one or both of the following designs, which I once used in a transfer station conversion. 
-Place the baler in the pit, fed by a horizontal conveyor just below the upper floor level that's loaded by pushing the material off of the tip floor.  Having a cascade of approximately 14' (typical pit depth)at the outflow of your conveyor eliminates the need for a fluffer on most paper grades, and a 14' tall surge hopper on the baler can greatly increase the efficiency of baling low-density materials.   
-Run a permanently-installed sort line in the pit, using the 14'headroom below for ample bunker space to accumulate loose sorted materials.
In both of the above examples, the use of gravity and thereby, much less expensive conveyors, are a great benefit.  The extra framing requirements, OHSHA-spec mezzanines, etc.. can be more than offset by savings when compared to the cost of a pit conveyor retrofit and the less-efficient use of floor space in a conventional layout.  

For more details, feel free to contact me off-list.

Regards,
Jay Donnaway
Oregon DEQ