NPE show recycler builds on lessons of 2015

If Paul Benvenuti had hair, it would have been on fire around this time three years ago.

It was the first time that Benvenuti's Commercial Plastics Recycling Inc. was handling recycling duties for the behemoth known as NPE.

And while everything ultimately worked out great, he said, there were some hiccups and learning curves along the way for the Tampa, Fla.-based company.

Ultimately some 400,000 pounds of plastic parts, accessories, doohickeys and thingamajigs were collected from the NPE floor and returned to the company's recycling site in Tampa for processing.

All those lessons learned, Benvenuti said, will come in handy this time around as the company is once again handling recycling duties at NPE2018 at the Orange County Convention Center.

"It was definitely a trial by fire, and we survived it. It was a lot of hard work. It was a steep learning curve the first time," Benvenuti said. "And we feel we have some lessons learned from that, working with both the exhibitors as well as ways we can make this more efficient."

About 40 tractor-trailer truckloads of plastics were recycled from the 2015 show, but the company hopes to cut down transportation this year by establishing grinding operations on-site.

Transporting less air and more plastic per load will help cut the number of 68-mile, one-way trips his trucks will have to take this time around, Benvenuti said.

It's hard to tell by just how much, but the plastics recycler hopes to eliminate maybe a third of the transportation in 2018 compared with 2015.

Commercial Plastics Recycling is teaming up with two other partners this time around to better manage all that plastic in 2018.

Weima (Booths W5489, W5589) is demonstrating its machinery — for both shredding and grinding — on site to handle the show plastics.

"Weima started teaming up with large trade shows over a decade ago in an effort to help the shows reduce their overall disposal footprint. As a trade-off for our efforts, the various shows provided great exposure to the Weima equipment," said Madison Burt, vice president of sales at Weima America Inc.

"Commercial Plastics, NPE and the complete team of people helping to get this recycling effort off the ground have been amazing to work with," he said.

Rotomolder Dura-Cast Products Inc. of Lake Wales, Fla., is providing rolling carts to allow workers to remove recyclables from the show floors. These bigger containers will be easier for employees to handle than the system used in 2015, Benvenuti said.

"We're going to be more efficient moving carts this year. We have four-wheeled carts as opposed to the plastic bins on the dolly [used last time]. We're hoping this will move material through the halls more effectively. It will be a little easier and faster for our workers to move materials to the recycling area," Benvenuti said.

Different plastics will be handled differently this time around. Both polypropylene and injection molded polyethylene will be sent through the grinding process. High density PE blow molded bottles will be compacted and baled by Waste Connections Inc. and sent to Commercial Plastics' facility in Tampa for further processing.

Waste Connections, a large solid waste management company, has ​ the contract to handle garbage and traditional recyclables at the convention center. Benvenuti said his company is working more closely with established recycling systems in place at the convention center this time around to make life easier and avoid duplicative efforts.

Other products, such as those made from polystyrene, polycarbonate and nylon, will be gathered and shipped as is in Gaylord containers to Commercial Plastics for recycling, Benvenuti explained.

With two large halls to cover, Benvenuti will be in charge of one and Rick Love will oversee the other. Love is director of quality and safety at Commercial Plastics Recycling, but Benvenuti calls him his "partner-in-arms" for the NPE recycling effort.

The recycler expects to have the same amount of material, or even a bit more, this time around.

Love remembered the beginning of the show in 2015 when Benvenuti was trying to split his time between locations before they figured out it was a two-man supervisory job.

But that doesn't mean there won't be challenges this year, the men realize.

"I'm hoping that we can pull it off like we did in 2015.You go through some bumps and bruises. But the people in the hall don't know the bumps and bruises you are going through. And that's the way you want to keep it," Love said.