Smart Recycling: The M&J 4000M shredder was the missing piece of the puzzle
Size-reducing more than 100,000 tonnes of waste every year is a demanding job, especially when processing challenging waste like construction materials, which contain everything from concrete and plasterboard to green waste and engineered wood.
Smart Recycling, part of Smart Resources Group and a leading waste recycling business in Melbourne, Australia, had firsthand experience with the wear and tear these tough materials could cause on its high-speed shredders.
However, buying a dedicated pre-shredder to process the demanding materials was not a dream that could be fulfilled immediately, says Managing Director, Ward Petherbridge:
"We always planned to get a shredder for the front end, but having a pre-shredder is a bit of a luxury in Australia because the market's immature. With a pre-shredder, you're not making a product you can sell. So, most people will go for a high-speed shredder to produce something that they can make, such as mulch or compost, that there's a market for. But the problem with a high-speed shredder is that it's very unforgiving when you hit metal, so there's always damage to the machine."
That damage means costly repairs and expensive downtime, yet the timing had to be right:
"When we started off, we couldn't afford our own pre-shredder. We transitioned from a landfill site to a recycling business. We were ahead of our time for Australia; there weren't strong markets for recycled products then. People did not understand why they should buy it, so it took us a long time to build up some markets."
After taking over management of the company his father built and after having watched the damage that metal contamination was causing to the high-speed shredders for 27 years, in 2024, it was finally the right time for Ward to upgrade Smart Resources Group's shredder line-up:
"I was like, we needed a pre-shredder 10 years ago. Now I'm buying one", Ward said, so the research began.
(the case story continues after the video)
The missing piece of the puzzle
Having worked with recycling for so many years, Ward had first-hand experience with tub grinders as well as high speed horizontal grinders, and the pros and cons of both shredder types. So, he always knew he needed a pre-shredder to process the challenging materials, before they are fed to high-speed shredders for secondary shredding.
Ward wanted local product support, so he started looking at what other companies were buying to find the right shredder.
"I'd seen the M&J Recycling brand in waste magazines for a number of years, and M&J's just always caught my attention for the type of material I deal with. It seemed like the right sort of machine", Ward states.
He did consider other options but decided on an M&J shredder after visiting several M&J-operated sites and seeing the shredders in action:
"We chose it for the ability to do materials that were problematic for the other shredders, and it's been a game changer for us because now I don't have to worry. We can take pretty much anything, and it's not a problem", Ward says and continues:
"Once I made the decision, I wanted it now because I could see it would open up an opportunity for me. We use the pre-shredder for the big, ugly stuff, to size the timber containing large metal, builder's waste, construction waste, and green waste".
With the pre-shredded materials, Smart Recycling’s density separators can do their work, and then staff picking through the materials subsequently have a good pick-up size. This way, the company can separate, extract and reuse as many valuable materials as possible. This process enables Smart Recycling to prevent 95% of the materials processed from going into landfills.
"So now I'm paranoid", says Ward, "if the M&J goes down, what am I going to do? The M&J shredder was the missing piece of the puzzle. We really needed it. I probably need another one as a backup."
Keeping uptime high and maintenance costs low
Since Ward got the M&J PreShred 4000M in April of 2024, it has been running without issues. Having been taught a valuable lesson at one of the sites he visited before buying the shredder, Ward makes sure it's well taken care of:
"That site had been very bad at the upkeep on the shredder, and they weren't doing enough hard-facing. It showed me I have to keep the hard-facing up, especially with the type of waste I'm handling there. So, we're touching up to hard-facing frequently to keep our shredder in peak performance. Minimum weekly, sometimes daily, depending on what we're doing with it."
The reliable pre-shredder has proven a good investment that extends beyond the shredder itself to the second stage of Smart Recycling’s operation:
"Having a machine that can handle the ugly stuff and do that initial sizing is a bit of a luxury I've never had before. It means there's now less damage to the company's other shredders, resulting in fewer breakdowns, less repair and less downtime that would otherwise bring the production to a halt."
Pre-processing with a magnet also makes for a safer operation, as the company does not risk feeding unshreddables, e.g. metal, into the high-speed shredders, which could result in it shattering or being thrown into the air at high speed, potentially causing an accident.
The future of waste in Australia?
In 2005, the Australian government introduced a levy for landfill waste, which has grown incrementally since then. If you ask Ward, this is what has helped make recycled materials attractive in the local market:
"It's impossible to compete with landfill without the levy. Without it, we wouldn't exist. We would have turned the old landfill that the company started with, into a golf course or a go kart track."
Another recent initiative that has helped shift the demand to recycled products is the government shutting down native forest logging in 2024. This has meant that recycled wood chips are gaining traction with local bioenergy plants and there are new opportunities with recycled agricultural mulches such as animal bedding, that traditionally were only prepared to use wood chips from sawmills.
Ward has also built a small-scale biomass boiler to minimize the residual waste that goes to landfills from Smart Resources’ three sites. The boiler runs on waste wood and makes it possible to sterilize and heat-treat the pallets Smart Pallets produce so they can be exported overseas.
Ward would love to do even more to utilize the value of waste, e.g. create resource-derived fuel (RDF) for waste-to-energy plants or cement kilns. The hurdle, however, is that there currently is not a market for it in Australia:
"I was looking at M&J fine-shredders to make RDF, because I'd love to take that next step. The residual waste I currently take to landfill would make a beautiful, beautiful fuel. I just don't have the customers for it yet. I am hoping more local initiatives develop in the coming years. They're in the pipeline", says Ward and finishes.
About the business:
Smart Recycling is one of three divisions under the Smart Resources Group. It operates from three sites in Southeastern, Northern and Western Melbourne, where they convert green waste, construction waste and timber into mulch, compost, crushed brick and crushed concrete for landscaping, road projects etc.
The second division, Smart Pallets, produces new, second-hand, and hybrid pallets that are sold locally and heat-treated for export. From timber alone, the company achieves a net carbon benefit of 14,500 tonnes per annum.
The third division, Smart Labour Hire, services the supply of blue and green collar labour to the manufacturing and logistics industries.
