 When Larry Waltrip saw that the five-acre C&D landfill he co-owned
and operated with his brother, D.S. "Timmy" Waltrip in Williamsburg,
VA, was quickly reaching capacity, he sat back and weighed his
options. One was to look for additional landfill space elsewhere in
the area. Another was to take measures to maximize the remaining
landfill space by volume-reducing the incoming debris-a much more
viable alternative. Because about 75% of that waste stream was wood,
a tub grinder purchase was made, and Larry and Jean Waltrip
established Waltrip Recycling, Inc. Today, nearly 8-1/2 years later,
the company, led by Waltrip as president, is one of the premiere
custom grinders serving eastern and central Virginia; son-in-law Don
Broady Jr., Waltrip's first employee, oversees the Blower Truck
division and serves as the company's operations manager; and the
landfill is still not at capacity.
The Science of Service
A majority of the grinding undertaken by Waltrip-better than 70%-is
done away from the firm's central site in Williamsburg. Such projects
can include land clearing for any of several larger area contractors,
work for the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), and
grinding for area municipalities. However, other contractors,
municipalities and the area public also choose to dispose of their
wood and green waste at Waltrip's yard. In both cases, according to
Larry Waltrip, equipment performance and reliability are key to the
company's success, demands that are met daily and without fail by a
pair of Model 1463 tub grinders from Diamond Z Manufacturing (Nampa,
ID).
"We place a great deal of value in the performance we get from each
of our two Diamond Z's," he says. "The unit we keep onsite does all
the material coming through here, including topsoil, stumps, brush,
pallets, whatever. We grind virtually everything and either use it
for mulch, as a soil mixture or sell it to area plants as burner
fuel. We also buy and process top-grade bark chips from local mills
to create material that is ASTM certified for use in playgrounds as
an impact resistant cover."
Waltrip estimates that they are grinding an average of 200 yards an
hour of finished product-about 500 yards an hour of unprocessed
material. Between the two grinders he guesses they are grinding
between 85,000 and 100,000 yards each year.
"That's a good deal of strain on any piece of equipment but Diamond
Z's tub grinders are obviously built to take that kind of punishment.
Because of their power-they are rated at between 850-990
horsepower-they grind almost anything we can throw at them from
smaller brush to 14 foot logs and 10 foot stumps. All we do is ensure
that solid preventive maintenance routines are followed and they do
the rest."
Going Mobile
Waltrip says the mobile unit, on the other hand, is constantly at
work meeting the grinding needs of five prime contractors and a host
of municipalities in the eastern and central part of the state.
"We have had tremendous success with our mobile operation," he says,
"and I feel a large part of that success is due to the efforts of
Jeff Moorecock who heads up our grinding division. His commitment to
the operation is evident in everything he does from planning to
ensuring customer satisfaction."
Waltrip adds that the company's ability to quickly and efficiently
get onsite, get the job done and remove the material, have also
separated them from the pack. "A lot of companies will come into a
project, grind the waste onsite and leave the contractor with huge
volumes of processed wood waste and a new problem: what to do with
it. While we're not the cheapest company in this area, we ultimately
end up saving the contractor money by reducing the time needed to
totally finish the job. With the waste processed and removed, the
contractor is free to move on to subsequent parts of the project such
as topsoil, footings and so on, and do so much quicker than he could
with other grinding contractors."
As with the unit that remains in Williamsburg, a rigorous PM program
has helped eliminate any major problems and the downtime associated
with it.
"With either of the tub grinders we have accidentally fed excavator
bucket pins, miscellaneous pieces of steel-even a transfer case from
a truck. Despite that, the Diamond Zs have never sustained any major
damage; they literally will grind most anything."
CLICK HERE for Part 2 |
