Giant Recycling Machine Makes Its Way To Snowflake Paper Mill

E-MAIL THIS

PRINT THIS

MOST POPULAR

PDF VERSION

XML VERSION

By Naomi Hatch
    It was nearly a week late, but the “Pulper” finally made it to Snowflake at around 4 p.m. on Friday, April 25. It took approximately 15 minutes to make the right turn off of Highway 77 onto Highway 277 at the traffic light on the way to the Catalyst Paper Corporation’s Snowflake mill.  The truck driver was able to place the peak of the drum so that the lights didn’t need taken down. On Highway 277, the last leg of the journey, it took up the entire road.
    “People had to pull off the road to let that thing get by,” said John McKee, general manager of the paper mill.
    The Pulper was purchased in Sweden and transported by ship to Houston, Texas. It was in Brackerton, Texas, on Saturday, April 12, and arrived at the New Mexico-Arizona border on Sunday, April 20. Prior to traveling the route, all bridges and utilities had to pass inspection.  
    The Pulper was expected at Catalyst Paper Mill on Monday, April 21, but there was a problem with four of the axles on Arizona roads. They were inspected and ready to begin the long trek again when there were only three Department of Public Safety (DPS) officers and four were needed to escort.
    The Pulper traveled at approximate 25 mph on an approximately 200’ long truck that was approximately 21’ wide and literally took up two lanes on the road. It comes in two sections, the drums and the screen section, and will be set up at the Snowflake Paper Mill, where it will recycle newsprint.
    “That one piece of equipment is about a $7 million project to us,” said McKee.
    He explained that the first half of the truck will take old newspaper and magazines that are to be recycled and mix them with water, passing it through to the second section where there are holes that will let the fiber drop through with everything else, such as plastic jugs, bottles and so forth, discharged out the end.  
    “We will put about 1,500 tons a day into this unit and it separates the trash from the fibers and sends the fibers on into the process,” explained McKee. “There’s another piece coming, not quite as long, but the same diameter, and it will be welded to this piece at the mill.  It’s not a complete product until it’s put together here.”
    Beginning May 30 during the mill outage they will remove the old pulper and install the new pulper, with the job of putting in the new pulper slated to take approximately 10 days.
    “This is a very large industrial site; we work with very large equipment and this gave people an opportunity to see a little of what we do,” said McKee.
    The other piece of the pulper is still at the Arizona-New Mexico border and there are some large diameter metal rings in Holbrook that will be welded to the shell.  Officials are not yet sure when they will be coming through Snowflake.