Your Daily Cover Problems Solved

In a world of increasing and relentless texting, typing, and emailing—when it comes to doing good business, there is still no substitute for one-on-one in-person conversations.

“That's one of the things that we did--talk to our customers-- to learn how they were doing out in the field, and what their concerns and needs were,” says Tony Knight (Milton F Knight), CEO of New Waste Concepts (NWCI).

The company provides full-service solutions for multiple industries including landfills, oil and gas, solid waste and remediation contractors and engineers, offering a comprehensive line-up of odor and dust control, water management, and landfill cover products. 

The latest innovation, Knight says, “will meet a number of needs the solid and hazardous waste markets are facing today.” He says their combination of a mixing platform and tracked application equipment that saves labor and time, using a quality product line, “is a definite game-changer for daily cover, seeding, erosion control, and odor control. 

“As we were developing a new machine for daily cover application, we talked to customers, particularly people at landfills, and it was very revealing. What we learned was that the shortage of employees, even finding employees to work at landfills and retaining them, is a serious problem. It was a problem before the pandemic, but it became significantly more so. And the nation still hasn't gotten our full labor force back to work. That's one side of the picture.

“The other is that landfills have always been very good operating lean and mean. Today, landfill volumes are growing as the communities and population around the landfill are growing. So in some places, the volume of the waste stream has actually doubled. The flip side of that positive story, however,  is that management in many cases has not grown staff or added the dollars to support more people to meet those added responsibilities.”

Knight says this translates into overtime hours, with only top priority projects getting done, and landfill managers doing double duty to keep the site up to date. In a landfill, every labor hour counts when you are limited in staff and trying to control costs. Knight notes that, “Our top priority was to improve the process of applying daily cover, making it faster and more efficient and still be compliant with the regs.”

“Current technology requires several laborers and multiple pieces of equipment either to spread or drag out a tarp, to excavate, move and push soil. To pull and spray with a hydroseeder requires often two to three people. Every day you are not only paying for labor, diesel fuel, maintenance, depreciation or amortization, but also the product.”

Knight says their company was one of the first innovators with a patented daily cover material known as ConCover launched more than 40 years ago. 

“We’ve come a long way since then, with 8 different cover products and several different application options. Applied as a sprayable slurry, NWCI's cover materials, control dust, odor, blowing litter, fires, and birds. All are adaptable to varying weather conditions and easy to use and apply.

“Today, we make it even easier than ever before,” Knight says.

Spray machines are not new, he explains. “Typically, it is tracked vehicles that have been constructed with hydroseeders, and then these mounted on the rear tilt beds of the tracked machines.  

"But, in order to apply the cover material or do hydroseeding, it generally requires a driver and someone else on the deck of the sprayer who is 10-12 feet above the ground. Definitely risky. Mixing and lifting product is also done at this higher height using a variety of equipment that often ignores the safety of the guys on the deck of the hydroseeder.

“Our new CAPS P series machine design, however, is a real game-changer. In effect, you only need one person to apply the product while the operator sits in an air-conditioned or heated cab. That operator has all the product and equipment controls within arm’s reach to handle spraying with the eight rear-facing nozzles, spraying with the cannon, spraying with the left or right-side nozzles, and cleaning. 

Even the loading of the cover material into the tank mounted on the P series machine is handled from the cab. To know when the tank is full and you need to shut the transfer process down, there's a light that comes on in the dash to alert you.”

Knight says that NWCI did not only develop the equipment, it designed a new and stronger cover material product for its CAPS P series machine, called ProGuard SB3. And at the same time, they still continue to manufacture other cover materials such as ConCover SW®, the ProGuard SB2®, ConCover 180®, ConCover 180 NS®, and HydraGuard®. 

In terms of efficiency Knight says landfills using the ProGuard or ConCover brand can apply a product as daily or intermediate cover for pennies per square foot. The combination with the P Series machine makes the process more efficient and cost-effective. 

Over the years Knight says he has observed that the quality of daily cover product has declined, which has been one driving incentive for NWCI to upgrade product as well as equipment. It is a win for both the landfill and NWCI.

The CAPS P series equipment comes with not only the tracked vehicle but a separate mixing platform which is part of the operational savings NWCI built into the system.  

“We designed the mixing platform so it was easy for one person, the operator who pilots the tracked vehicle, to mix the raw materials into a slurry. All the raw materials are within an arm’s reach of the person mixing the load.”  

He explains that all the raw materials are within an arm’s reach of the person mixing the load.  “A pallet (40 bags) is first loaded onto the cellulose pallet lift and that adjusts electrically to minimize the lifting of the cellulose bags. Also, a pallet of chemical bags is loaded onto a shelf that is at the height of the deck, and a flexible container (275 gallon tote) of HydraGuard can be loaded onto a separate shelf on the other side of the machine.  

In this new design the operator does not have to break up the cellulose blocks by hand because there is a debagging table and mulch grinder which speeds up the wetting-out of the cellulose product. The chemical bags can be dropped on a bag-cutter with the two ends being lifted. At the same time, HydroGuard, a liquid chemical used for dust control, or enhancing the durability of the cover material, can also be added simply by turning a valve to allow flow into the chemical bag hatch.  

“Everything on this machine is designed to save time,” Knight confirms.

He adds that the engine required for mixing or driving the mulch grinder is not required to be as large as that required for a typical hydroseeder.  

“The reason is because we have no pump on the mixing platform. The transfer from the mixing platform is done using the 900 gallon per minute vortex pump on the CAPS P series tracked vehicle. This only takes 4 minutes to transfer 1350 gallons from the mixing platform to the tank on the tracked vehicle. 

“So, you back up to the mixing platform and connect two hoses and open a manual butterfly valve and remove a cam lock cap. Then, you start the process by pushing a button in the cab which opens and closes all the right valves.”

At this point, the mix is ready to go.

“Only one person is needed to perform the entire function of preparation, then that operator simply drives it up to the landfill for application to the open face,” Knight says. Plus, the system serves perfectly for other applications such as hydroseeding outside slopes, and applying intermediate cover.”  

“The secret”, Knight says, is “the wide sprayer at the rear which covers a 90-foot-wide swath of the working face. One of our customers told us it significantly cuts down the time it takes to cover 25,000 square feet of working face, as he was able to cover that area within about 4 minutes.”

The ProGuard line can be used as a daily cover, or cost-effective intermediate cover minimizing water intrusion, keeping down dust and odors, and substantially controlling VOCs coming out of the ground by a factor of 100. Knight also notes that operators can put in additives for birds and odor at the same time if needed. 

Knight notes that bringing the new equipment to market required 18 months of working with Prinoth, the Italy-based tracked vehicle manufacturer. There was an additional six months in application equipment testing and refinement to perfect the efficiency, controls, and to optimize the nozzle alignments. 

“We wanted the process fully streamlined with no glitches during demonstrations in the field. The Prinoth team was so impressed with the design that they are building segments of the equipment for NWCI. We intend to work with the Prinoth dealers throughout the USA and Canada to help get the equipment and product into the hands of the end user.

“The fact is, in today's world of belt tightening and fewer workers, we need a system that will help the landfill achieve productivity improvements, and still make it cost-effective. The cover material needs to do the job intended and now, I think we have the best of both worlds—the product and the equipment system to meet all those requirements for our landfill market and beyond.”

Cover of a different kind

In July of 2021, the EPA released a comprehensive study of Lithium-Ion battery fires occurring in waste management and recycling facilities, citing 245 reported fires at 64 different sites. While the agency reviewed nearly ten years of data and focused only on waste and recycling facilities, one thing was clear: The report says it “does not capture all fires caused by improperly discarded LIB,” and that “...not all incidents are made public, and not all incidents are covered by the news.”

No surprise there.

Whether it's a battery, escaping chemicals, internal heat causing combustion, or other sources, any fire at a landfill is a potential calamity. They can occur under the confluence of ‘just right conditions,’ giving landfill operators many a sleepless night.

And fires do more than destroy property; they can affect responders who are put at risk, compromise the health of air and water quality of local communities, and of course, have severe impact on waste operations.

With safety being a priority, Fire Rover® CEO Will Schmidt explains how his company can help landfill operators rest easier—day and night.

“We are an eight-year-old company that was founded as an outgrowth of a video monitoring organization,” Schmidt explains, adding that their original process detected fires as a security measure at scrapyards.

“Then a customer said, ‘hey if you can detect fire, can you put them out, too?’ so we started working on that.”

Schmidt says they wanted to develop a remote early identification of fire, with confirmation from human verification, and then be able to target the fire with a spray suppressant. A system that would operate in minutes and take a small fire “about the size of a campfire detected at 100 feet,” under immediate control, and avert a disaster.

“There are a lot of fire detection and suppression systems for interiors, but not many options that work for large industrial facilities and outside environments. That's where we come in with Fire Rover.”

Schmidt says that customers are guaranteed around the clock observation staff of trained Fire Rover professionals who monitor units from a central location. He adds the detection capabilities of Fire Rover were perfected from existing technologies to increase their sensitivity.

“Making these as sensitive as possible however, helps to creates false positives. However, our human intervention guarantees by observation that it is truly a fire. We have multiple monitoring stations with redundant power and communications. So, you can be assured you are covered for fire protection around the clock.”

Typically, the monitoring and suppression is 100-150 feet and Schmidt says they work with each client doing a lot of configuring to come up with the optimum detection and suppression program.

The fire suppressant, Schmidt says, is attached by a hose and tanks that automatically is accessed upon fire confirmation. The product is an encapsulating agent “that makes the water wetter and interrupts the carbon process of the fire.”

He says they have environmentally friendly foam to use also.

Now, Schmidt explains that their latest advances from Fire Rover assure landfill operators and staff that they are covered from the threat and outcomes of deadly fire.

Dubbed as OnWatch®, this new system was rigorously field tested and after four months the model was perfected to the requirements of harsh outdoor environments. 

“Landfill operators can now purchase this protection as a turn-key system, ready to go.”

He describes a recent scenario involving a lithium battery-ignited fire that was taken under immediate control and averted a significant disaster.

“It was just a small, lithium battery in a desolate transfer station, but this was quickly detected by OnWatch, then verified, suppressed, and put out by our operators. Now, it was small to start and in a remote area, but this could have been a catastrophe. There was a lot to fuel that fire and it's the really small events that turn into disasters.” He explains how OnWatch does its job.

“The OnWatch is a portable trailer with the observation system mounted on a mast that can be lowered or raised, easily movable for wherever you want to set up. It's self-contained and powered by its own solar panels for daytime, and its wind turbine systems generate electricity at night,” Schmidt says.

He adds that the solar panels and wind turbine generate power for the on-board battery bank.

“We size the batteries for the particular geography where it will be used. Then, we use state-of the art thermography cameras. These are the best you can get and what we are looking for is the heat just before a fire. Then, a human looks at the same system from our control operations base, and verifies it is a true fire and once that happens, we follow the customer's protocol as to whom to contact to deploy site personnel or professional response.”

Landfill operators can put the OnWatch in one spot, with the view toward the working face, then retract the mast, and re-extend it somewhere else. Or, it can be directed to a location where potentially flammable, high risk materials are located to monitor that risk.

“We custom design your unit and each location is different. The cameras generally monitor a 180-degree area, although we can go to 360 degrees. It generally covers the whole working face, which is where the highest fire risk exists. Early detection allows the fire to be controlled early, making OnWatch an unbeatable asset for your property protection.”

The OnWatch monitoring technology, Schmidt says, was “designed by the same firm that is used by the Department of Defense protecting properties worth millions. 

“The energy created by a fire, the size of a small campfire for example, is easily detected at 100 feet; at a landfill the heat generated from a fire the size of two small campfires can be detected as far as 500 feet away. The technology and software we use to detect fires is unmatched anywhere.”

Whether detecting fires early at a landfill using OnWatch, or suppressing fires remotely at a waste facility using a Fire Rover system, a serious concern of fires, Schmidt explains, is that it puts responders in harm's way.

And there is still another reason to control landfill fires, Schmidt says.

“You want to be a good neighbor and if there is an uncontrolled fire, the community is going to be upset and they will not support you. So, if you are hoping to expand, or add to your services, people in the community will be less likely to support you.

“Few remember or appreciate that a landfill takes care of everyone's trash every day, year-round, but they will remember a fire disaster.

“We can keep people safe, property safe and protect the environment. There is real risk at landfills all the time, but now real solutions. Fire Rover is the cost-effective answer to significantly reduce the likelihood of a catastrophic loss at your facility.”

He adds that the software capabilities to detect, manage, and suppress fires is highly sophisticated, garnering the company an innovation award in Australia at their largest waste and recycling show.

“We have installations in Canada, and through distributors are now servicing the UK and Australia.  and we have additional international markets in the works. Since our inception, we have detected and put out hundreds of fires, and every day property and lives are protected.

“No question, there is a global need. If you have a fire risk we can help you manage that—safely, efficiently, and cost-effectively. Prevention to cover you is always money well spent.”

Pulling their weight—easily

It's almost hard to believe it’s been almost thirty years since subtitle D went into effect mandating landfill working face covers. From the start, Tarpomatic® innovation and technology has filled the need for compliance, says company sales and marketing manager Marlon Yarborough.

“We have been around since daily cover regulations were introduced in 1994; however, the early versions of tarp covering [are] nothing like today's sophisticated products and machinery. We've come a long way, no question.”

Yarborough says that in the early 1990's they started looking at fabrics that were lightweight but still strong to withstand the rigors of landfill applications.

“We wanted something that would shed water, and then later we had fabric developed that was also flame resistant. What's unique about our fabrics compared to other tarps, is that these attributes are not just coatings, but are actually integral to the woven tapes, so it is a true double-sided protection.”

Yarborough adds that other fabrics that are not coated can let air and water in. When a material is permeable it is vulnerable and this contributes to leachate and is less capable in suppressing the escaping gases from the working face. The other benefit to the two-sided flame retardant protection is reduced landfill fire risk.

He recalls that in those early days, adding a flame retardant to the tarps was a novel concept, but he says customers continually report its effectiveness and how it works on fire risk.

“The fabric can act as suppression by keeping the oxygen out which then starves the fire. Plus it works to keep dust and odor down as well.”

Working with a progressive rolled goods firm he says that “Every few years, the polyethylene fabric technology advances with new, more resilient, and tougher fibers which we can incorporate in our tarps. Our mill we work with is very progressive; they supply all our rolled goods and are always on the cutting edge of fiber innovation.”

Beyond a superior fabric, the Tarpomatic application machinery is also state of the art, designed with safety as its first priority, as Yarborough explains.

“In the mid-90's, the owner of the company saw a need for a better, safer means to apply tarp covers that were being pulled on manually. He designed what then became the Tarpomatic machine and the name says it all: an ‘automatic tarp’ application.”

With a commitment to heavy duty steel construction, Tarpomatic units—called the Automatic Tarp Machine (ATM)—are fabricated in Canton, Ohio, and Yarborough says these rugged m