Developing environmentally positive processes takes teamwork, and the combination of PECO Pallet Inc. and Boulware Equipment has proven to be a green success story since the companies started working together in 2017. PECO Pallet, one of the largest pallet rental companies in the United States, is known for its distinctive red pallets and commitment to green business principles.
Boulware Equipment, which provides turnkey grinding and recycling systems in North America, ensures that no waste pallet or wood from PECO facilities goes into a landfill. To date, Boulware has supplied grinding systems to seven PECO depots, starting with the Lakeland, Florida facility in 2017.
PECO has invested capital and operational plans into the systems. Taking advantage of Boulware’s Rebuild Program, PECO has reduced initial capital costs for each installation. Boulware’s Rebuild Program is a popular solution to reduce costs while ensuring a top-quality grinding solution. Boulware Equipment rebuilds used 2005 and newer Cresswood grinders to like-new conditions with all new & rebuilt mechanical parts. This can help save up to $30,000-40,000 compared to the cost of a new turnkey grinder system. Each rebuilt grinder comes with a 24-month limited warranty from Boulware.
Turnkey Solutions
Beyond just selling a grinder, Boulware offers a complete turnkey solution from system design to installation, training and market development. Boulware supplies wood chip trailers, logistics and recycling service options in addition to helping customers find good markets for waste material.
Brad Boulware, president of Boulware Equipment, admitted, “My daughter, Jessica, is our secret weapon. She knows wood waste markets and has been instrumental in finding good markets and uses for reground material. This helps the customer know that they are going to have a good return on their investment. We strive to take waste streams and turn them into dollar positive business opportunities.”
All wood fiber removed from PECO depots is repurposed for the best environmental impact given the depot’s geographic location and logistics limitations. PECO wood trash is repurposed by Boulware for use as mulch, playground material, municipal and industrial absorbents, niche industrial product manufacturing, and industrial/municipal biomass fuel.
Dale Walter, PECO’s finance manager, explained, “We pull out and recycle metal. Wood is chopped up and ground into a mulch-like material. We then sell that output to other providers who turn it into products like animal bedding, garden mulch and other landscaping products. Boulware has been very helpful assisting us in identifying and building those relationships with buyers where we didn’t have them.”
Boulware doesn’t walk away after the sale. Walter noted, “Boulware Equipment has worked closely with us, not just at the beginning but with service and support on a continual basis. Their support has been instrumental in helping us overachieve on our goals for waste recycling and landfill diversion.”
A typical Boulware grinding solution includes a grinder installed in a dock door to conserve space and easily convey ground material outside of the facility to trailers. The dock door design reduces forklift activity, mitigates noise, eliminates unnecessary steps and improves safety. No matter the weather, rain or shine, employees don’t have to walk outside to feed a grinder. They are able to easily place pallets into a grinder while staying inside the building. This approach also eliminates the collection of waste pallets in big, hazardous piles outside. Then a grinder, typically a Cresswood low-RPM grinder, grinds the pallets. The Cresswood grinder completely separates the metal from the wood, and Boulware’s metal separation system ensures 99.9% of metal is separated from the wood fiber. The system moves the chips outside, where they are blown directly into a wood chip trailer. Boulware provides the dead bottom and walking floor trailers as part of its service.
Walter explained, “The shredded waste is deposited in a trailer, and once it is filled up, we sell it. It is one of the last things we do and is at the end of a typical depot’s repair and recycling operation.”
Currently, PECO uses the Boulware grinding system at depots in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Ohio, Illinois and California.
PECO’s Environmental Focuses and Strategies
Being a good steward of the environment is a principal focus and core value for the company. Eric Sobanski, PECO’s senior vice president of operations, commented, “Our acquisition and use of renewable forest products is focused on three areas: sustainable sourcing, protection of forest resources, and sustainable forestry.”
PECO exclusively sources Southern Yellow Pine and Douglas fir in North America from sustainable forests that are certified by the FSC and SFI organizations. The company maximizes the value and effectiveness of its procurement program through industry best practices and quality audits.
A second pillar of PECO’s good stewardship program is energy management. Sobanski stated, “We continually look for opportunities to reduce energy consumption through creative and innovative application of technology, energy-saving processes and equipment, and best operating practices. We assess operational efficiency continuously, analyze opportunities and risks, and implement steps to reduce operational energy use and the impact on communities where energy is generated.” Sobanski noted that some of the current and future initiatives PECO is pursuing include installing energy-efficient LED lighting with zone motion sensors throughout facilities and offices, switching to energy-efficient heat pumps (HVAC), and installing new and better performing insulation when remodeling office and breakroom spaces.
And the third major focus of PECO’s green initiatives centers on waste management and landfill diversion. Recycling, landfill diversion, composting, converting waste into energy, and reusing waste into other products are the among top techniques deployed at PECO. The company strives to meet a zero-waste goal, keeping as much as possible out of landfills. In 2022, PECO recycled and reused over 400,000 units of pallet components and diverted some 3,750 tons of material (wood waste, cardboard, metal and plastic) from landfills. The Boulware grinding systems are the key to achieving these goals when it comes to wood and scrap metal waste.
As a general rule, any packaging material that finds its way into a PECO facility, including cardboard, metal or plastic, goes through a recycling program. Wood components that are salvageable and continue to have some useful life are repaired or renovated as needed and reused into new pallets.
Sobanski explained, “All three of these initiatives have had a significant impact on reducing PECO’s carbon footprint and will continue to drive us going forward.”
Beyond the three key green focuses detailed above, PECO has also started using new advanced modeling software from Optilogic to better manage its network. Sobanksi said, “These enhanced techniques allow us to more quickly identify and adjust for the impact of changing volumes among new and existing customers, model different operating scenarios, and measure and allocate risk.”
PECO is leveraging Optilogic to model and optimize scenarios across its entire network, which encompasses some 90 operating depots, serves over 2,000 customers and maintains a rolling inventory of some 23 million red-marked block pallets. This modeling better enables PECO to monitor and evaluate shifts in customer mix, inventory repositioning, shortages, changes in pallet demand and other unanticipated market disruptions. Marc Downs, senior director of network design and supply chain planning at PECO, estimated that this year, using Optilogic, PECO will be able to reduce truck miles by 5-7%.
Why Is Boulware the Right Fit?
PECO chose Boulware Equipment’s approach because it was green in more ways than one. It saves money and helps the environment at the same time.
Eric Sobanski of PECO explained, “We invested in the Boulware system to support our cost, energy consumption reduction and landfill diversion goals. The ability to use Boulware’s system to convert waste into other uses is not only is the right thing to do from a resource reuse and sustainability perspective, but it also provided a measurable return on investment by reducing the cost of what previously was delivered to landfill, and generating revenue from what was formerly a waste product with no value.”
After the sale, Boulware works to make sure that everything is running well and progressing toward pre-determined recycling targets. Sobanski declared, “Specifically, Boulware’s equipment uptime and maintenance support have been excellent. The equipment’s performance and reliability are key factors in meeting our goals… Where we have Boulware equipment installed and in operation, we have overachieved our targets for waste diversion.”
Another major benefit is the enclosed grinder design, which ensures employee safety.
Innovative Rebuild Program
Boulware Equipment recognizes that deploying its solutions across a large depot network is capital intensive. The company worked to help PECO reduce its initial expense by providing rebuilt machines. Waste can be a major drag on operational efficiency and profit. The rebuild program puts used equipment to good use while lowering the cost compared to buying a new grinder.
Walter of PECO stated, “Our equipment is still under warranty and has been operating effectively and without issues. We haven’t tested a brand-new grinder; however, the rebuild service allows us to make the financials work in locations where waste volumes would otherwise make it cost-prohibitive. Boulware’s Rebuild Program has helped reduce our waste costs by up to 90%.”
PECO likes working with Cresswood grinders due to their simplicity and ease of use. Walter added, “They are easy to operate, they can handle any wood waste without difficulty, it operates reliably, and the equipment is durable as an outdoor setup (it even survived Florida hurricanes).”
Boulware offers troubleshooting, speedy parts delivery and on-site service to reduce downtime. In addition, Boulware performs regular system service inspections and tooling rotations for PECO at differing frequencies depending on each location. It also supplies electrical control systems for the grinders that integrate with PECO’s preferred monitoring systems.
Walter summed up Boulware’s service track record when he said, “Boulware has been very responsive to any service need. We have worked with them to put a plan in place for 2023 maintenance for all of our machines. Support has been excellent; the Boulware team has been highly collaborative and engaged with us, offering innovative practices and approaches as we grow, and continuing to offer us scalable, cost-effective solutions.”
For more information on Boulware Equipment, visit www.boulwarellc.com or call (704) 651-6061.
