Markets We Serve
Republic’s Single Shaft Shredder is Your Recycling Solution for Plastic, Film, Rubber, Fiber, Medical Waste, Wood, and Composite Materials.

PRE-CONSUMER
Pre-consumer materials are generated by manufacturers and processors, and may consist of scrap, trimmings and other by-products that were never used in the consumer market.

POST CONSUMER
Post-consumer material is an end product that has completed its life cycle as a consumer item and would otherwise have been disposed of as a solid waste. Post-consumer materials include recyclables collected in commercial and residential recycling programs, such as office paper, cardboard, aluminum cans, plastics and metals.

Both terms apply to Republic Machine’s Markets Served.

The plastics market for recycled materials continues to grow well above the plastics industries. The Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) and Plastic News are showing 3 – 5 times the growth rate of the base industry.

Plastic/Wood Lumber Market alone is one of the large growth areas.
In 2001, this market included decking material, molding & trim, windows & door, fencing, and other smaller “add-on” components with total production of $1.07 billion. By the end of 2006, this market segment has reached just over $2.1 billion.

The significant components of this segment are Polyethylene (PE) and Polypropylene (PP). There are many sources for PE and PP that can help drive the single shaft industry. PE is available in Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) [example: construction sheets, trash bags, zip-lock], High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) [examples: liners, covers, films, sheeting, tubing, shrink packaging and plastic lumber], and Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE) [examples: Cable covering, toys, lids, buckets and containers, pipe].

This is perfect application material for RM’s Zoidal AntiWrap Cutter System.

The most notable post industrial sources are:

• purging,
• edge trims, and
• process scrap that has been contaminated by either color or other foreign materials that make the product unsuitable for the virgin processor of that material.

Stretch wrap from distribution and food industries also represents a large potential untapped market.

Post-consumer sources are:

• plastic consumer bags,
• milk jugs,
• hydro-pulp (from) paper milk cartons,
• soda and water bottles.

The contamination rates are normally far greater and require significantly larger investment by companies to purify this product stream.

Market Specific Targets:

A. Injection Molding

B. Plastic Film

C. Product Packaging

D. Plumbing Fixtures and Fittings

E. Plastic Containers

F. Stretch and Shrink Film

The $3.2 billion stretch and shrink film industry presents stretch and shrink film type (e.g., wrap, labels and sleeves, hoods, bags); by market (e.g., food, beverages, paper and textile products, consumer products); and by resin (e.g., LLDPE, conventional LDPE, PVC, polypropylene).

Republic’s Zoidal AntiWrap Cutter System is the only shredder that can continuously run these products without wrapping and over heating.

Alternate Energy & Carpet Reused
This is a relative new business model for North American companies. However, this industry is well established in the European model. An article in the Wall Street Journal about Cemex displays the enormous potential here. This article appeared on September 1, 2004. Cemex decreased energy costs by an amazing 17% in less than 4 years.

One of the largest potential sources is carpet. Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) is a dedicated organization geared to get the 5 billion pounds of carpet out of landfills. Carpet is on par with coal for the BTU per ton basis. The bigger carpet companies are driving this initiative to implement this process of recycling post consumer carpet into new carpet fiber with the off fall going to other industries and fuel.

Currently there is a pilot power plant being constructed for carpet companies to generate its own energy to run the plant facilities. That power plant could be on line in thefall of 2008.

Market Specific Targeting:

Reconstitute Fiber
Today, we know with the high price of a barrel of oil, many carpet manufacturers are establishing gathering points in major cities to collect, grind, and reconstitute fiber from certain carpets. This material is being used in the manufacturing process for new carpet. With this new demand for grinding post consumer carpet, Republic Machine is aligned with the carpet industries to be a major supplier for grinding the tough, abrasive carpet. Republic’s split-a-part machine, rotor and patented Zoidal cutter technology will lead the innovation for high grinding production to meet the needs.

Carpet and Rugs: The US carpet and rug demand will reach 22 billion square feet in 2009. Gains will be supported by accelerating nonresidential construction, expanding distribution channels, product innovations and improved materials. Rugs will benefit from consumer preference for hard surface flooring, over which scatter and area rugs are often placed.

It’s the replacement/waste side of the market that holds the greatest potential. This product can be burned for generating electricity with hardly any environmental implication. This is truly a waste to energy opportunity.

Deposable Medical Waste & Supplies
Note: EPA requires all medical waste to be either autoclaved or chemically treated before any deposal into landfills. Most landfills require shredding before deposal, but this is not an EPA or legislative requirement yet.

In 2005, the U.S. medical waste management and services industry was $1.8 billion. Expected to rise at an average annual growth rate (AAGR) of 5.7%, the market will exceed $2.4 billion in 2008. The service market dominates, and has for more than 10 years. Seventy-two percent of infectious waste management revenue stemmed from the service market, in part because waste generators became increasingly wary about investing in on-site technology. Rising service fees and increasing numbers of service providers, waste generating facilities and patients are support growth in this market.

Liquid medical waste management is expected to experience the strongest growth rate by 2008. The disposable medical supplies demand will increase annually through 2009. Blood glucose test strips, dialysate delivery devices, prefilled inhalers, prefilled syringes and would healing growth factors will be the fastest growing products. Home health care will pace market gains while hospitals remain the dominant sector.

Example of this market’s waste products also includes: plastics, nonwoven fabrics, paper and paperboard, rubber; by type: inhalation and anesthesia, catheters, hypodermic, infusion, transdermal patches, dialysis, wound closures, bandages, wound dressings, garments and textiles, face masks, incontinence, diagnostic and lab, contact lenses, surgical, disinfectants, gloves, sterilization supplies—all materials once autoclaved or chemically treated can be easily shredded for landfill deposal using the Zoidal AntiWrap Cutter System with the Split-A-Part shredder. See innovations for more details.

Rubber

The rubber industry is much less structured than the plastic industry. The industry is broken down into two major categories. The first is tires.

The EPA and state regulatory agencies have been focused on post consumer and post industrial tires for several decades. Tires have been banned from most, if not all land fills. Most states have a mandatory recycling fee added into each tire that is purchased. This fee is used to reduce the size of environmentally hazardous tire piles within each state.

The single shaft shredder does not handle the steel belted tires well. Therefore, the twin, triple or quadruple shaft slow speed sheer shredders dominate this market.

Market Specific Targeting

There continues to be new markets opening up for the crumb rubber that is the result of grinding tires.

A. The crumb rubber is used in many industrial industries including the tire industry. Several new markets that have opened in the last decade are playground coverings; the new artificial surfaces used in sports have a heavy content of crumb rubber. The market for this type of product will continue to show great growth.

The other rubber market is non tire. This segment of the industry is broken into two separate markets as well. The two markets are cured and uncured rubbers.

B. The uncured market requires a machine capable of handling small pillows. These pillows are processed using water for lubricant and require special equipment to handle the water. The size of the pillow is much smaller than the needs of the plastics industry. The pillow is typical less than 2’x2’x6”. Republic is capable of building all stainless steel models for the wet application as well.

This market has a large potential for new technology and better price structures. The Republic Machine’s Single Shaft Shedders with Zoidal AntiWrap Cutter System is well suited for this market but the machine must be sized and priced to meet the market demand.

Wood

This is the oldest and more mature of the any of the potential markets. The industry expects a lower priced unit. A large number of competitors are long established and well entrenched in the recyclers’ mind. Weima and VecoPlan are the two top players. Market penetrations are viewed by industry experts as 95+% saturated and most equipment sales are replacement only. The best means to approach this industry is through conferences and tradeshows. The ability to gain sales here is based solely on price.

Market Specific Targeting

A. Wood & Competitive Decking

B. Wood-Plastic Composites

Document Destruction

This industry is growing extremely fast. This is being driven by identify theft. The rate and creativity of the criminal activity has quickly made this industry one of the largest potentials for eliminating documents.