"rag rope" waste reduction -Reply

[Albert Tieche <TIECHE@cisnash.gw.utk.edu>]

>>> Terry Albrecht
<Terry_Albrecht@owr.ehnr.state.nc.us> 05/05/97
05:57am >>>
Does anyone have experience dealing with "rag rope"
waste in the corrugate cardboard reprocessing industry? 
This waste is a continuous twisted bundle of steel bailing
wire pulled out of the primary pulping vat.  This bundle is
95% steel by weight but is contaminated with tape,
plastics, dirt/grit, and fiber pulp.  I am working with a
mini-mill in
NC that is currently landfilling  a few tons of this material
per day.  Looking for any proven p2/wr strategies?  
Thanks.




Terry Albrecht, PE
NC Division of Pollution Prevention &
Environmental Assistance
Asheville Office
25 Heritage Drive
Asheville, NC 28806
Phone (704) 232-5080
Fax   (704) 251-6353

I am looking as well. I have a client with the exact same
problem. To me the answer appears to be keeping the
baling wire out of the hydropulper in the first place. I
suspect this problem has been solved by someone
somewhere already. However, I posted this to P2Tech
several months ago and got no replies. Maybe this time
will produce soemthing. 

The problem at my client's site is how to remove wire from
bales after they are placed on the conveyor that feeds the
hydropulper. Some  balers produce bales with the wire
oriented radially and some with the wire axially so there is
not uniformity. My client has an employee cut the wire as it
sits on the conveyor, with a set of wire snips modified with
about 36" to 48" long handles to reach the far side of the
conveyor. The wire is allowed to enter the hydropulper
along with the bales of OCC and the "rag rope" is
produced as a waste.

Albert Tieche
UT CIS
615-532-8657
tieche@utk.edu