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Welcome to a virtual tour of SOCRRA’s Troy Transfer Station. This is the site that takes in all the trash collected in each of the member communities and is open to businesses and residents for their solid waste disposal needs. The site is located on Coolidge, between 14 Mile and Maple, right across from the Meijer Thrifty Acres. As you first enter the site, you will notice a large sign giving directions. Car Trucking, Rizzo Services and Tringali Sanitation are the three private companies, under contract to SOCRRA, for collection of trash in the SOCRRA member communities. Their packer trucks are given priority in dumping, thus are allowed to drive directly into the Transfer Station. “Everyone else”, meaning commercial and other private entities, head to the scale next to the big white building, which is SOCRRA’s recycling facility. Let’s first follow one of the private contractors. Before entering the Transfer Station, the truck stops on the weigh scale so its contents can be weighed by the computerized system. SOCRRA charges on the basis of tonnage so accurate weights are essential. For safety sake, and for keeping in compliance with State and Federal waste laws, a list of rules & regulations are posted at the entranceway. After the truck is weighed, it is directed to dump near one of two huge trash compactors. Attached to the compactor is a 120-cubic yard transfer trailer that the compactor pushes the waste inside. Each trailer holds about 34 tons of packed trash to make the hour-plus drive to the Arbor Hills Landfill near Northville. The main idea behind a transfer station is to have one huge trailer make this long trip instead of many small garbage trucks. In our case, an average of 500 tons per day go through the facility. That means about 80 garbage trucks come into the building, transfer their waste via compactor to the large semi-trailers, with only 15 of these large trailers needing to make the 3-hour round trip to the landfill and back. Now, if you’re a commercial establishment or resident looking to get rid of your trash, follow the sign to the recycling center. Here too is a truck scale to record the weight of your vehicle. If you are a regular customer with your vehicles’ tare (empty) weight in our computer, the scale system will automatically generate the net weight of the waste. Otherwise, an assessment will be made of the volume of material on board and conversion made to weight. In either case, pricing is the same: $60 per ton with a $35 minimum charge. After paying, our scale clerk will direct you to a dumping location—either the Transfer Station, if no one else is in line, or to a large garage behind the recycling center. Since we already toured the Transfer Station, let’s go to the hand-unloading shed. Here one can take their time unloading their truck or trailer and not be in the way of the large garbage trucks. At the end of each day, all waste is removed from this garage and placed in these rolloff boxes. The boxes then get dumped inside the Transfer Station and waste ultimately disposed of at Arbor Hills Landfill. This concludes the virtual tour of SOCRRA’s Transfer Station. While this is an important component of our integrated solid waste management program, appreciate that it’s better to not create waste in the first place. Copyright © 2007 [SOCRRA]. All rights
reserved.
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