California-based Electronics Recyclers International (ERI) has announced the addition of a second facility in its home city of Fresno. ERI has leased 125,440 square feet of space in Fresno. The company says it is the single largest industrial lease signed in 2008 in Fresno County, Calif.
According to an ERI news release, the tilt-up concrete facility features energy-saving lighting, a 30-foot clearance height and a laser leveled floor. ERI now occupies more than 200,000 square feet in Fresno.
The new facility is home to what ERI is billing as the largest electronic scrap shredder in North America. The machine, made by SSI of Wilsonville, Ore, can process up to 20,000 pounds of electronic scrap per hour.
The shredder is made up of 40 different components, and the shredders combine for 900HP and weigh more than 120,000 lbs. The main shredder has a 7-foot wide by 6-foot long throat which is large enough for batch-fed consumer and commercial electronics scrap.
“The crusher is the largest and is able to handle the highest volumes of any shredding system ever developed in North America,” says ERI CEO John Shegerian. “And because we’re the number one brand, and because our volumes are so high, we’re able to handle this material now, the best way, with this shredding system, better than any of our competitors in the United States.”
Over the next two years, Shegerian says he plans to expand not only into more places within the United States, such as Texas, New York and Georgia, he is also eyeing the European Union, Canada, Mexico and China.
“It’s a new beginning in that we are honored to be able to open up the largest electronic waste shredding system in North America here in Fresno,” says Shegerian. “Fresno is where we started this company, where it’s headquartered out of, and it’s going to be our international headquarters for years to come.”
The system can handle pretty much anything with a circuit board and a plug. All material is safely slow shredded (torn apart into 1 1/2 and smaller pieces) and then the different commodities are separated from the shredder stream.
The only materials that won’t be run through the shredders are CRTs. However, the company has a separate system to process those.