Bagging Those Connections

by Maggie Coulter, CalMAX Coordinator

Although they are primarily in the business of making machinery for recycling and for making recycled-content products, Cal Sierra Machines of Pomona also brokers plastic bags. Now, these aren't your grocery store variety bags; these are "super sacks" which can hold 2,000 pounds of material. Bruce Hecker, owner of this 16-year-old business, heard from a customer that these giant bags were being thrown away. In an effort to keep the sacks out of the landfill, Hecker started to collect them. He put an "available" ad in CalMAX in April 1998, and it has run continuously since then. From CalMAX, Hecker gets more than enough takers for the approximately 200 sacks he collects each month.

Super sacks are made from woven polypropylene. They come in different sizes with the average size being 3 feet square and 4 to 5 feet tall. The sacks are very light when empty, weighing about 5 pounds. The sacks are produced for shipping materials like powdered milk (in liners), plastic pallets, crumb rubber, and styrofoam packaging peanuts. Hecker gets several calls a month from companies that want the sacks for various re-uses including firewood, grain, graphite granules, and manufacturing by-products.

One of Hecker's takers is Kortick Manufacturing Company, located in San Francisco. Kortick's Ray Schlocker became a CalMAX user four years ago; since then he has found the super sacks, as well as pallets and steel drums, through CalMAX. The sacks are used to ship heptahydrate crystals, which are a by-product of Kortick's hot dip galvanizing process. End users of the crystals include a fertilizer manufacturer and a mining company. Schlocker has also helped spread the word about CalMAX by giving away his old catalogs to other businesses that were not aware of CalMAX.

Kortick's utilization of the bags may not be the end of the line, however, as the super sacks can be used several times as long as they are properly handled. Unfortunately, some users cut them open instead of using the bag ties; this usually renders the bags unusable so that they have to be recycled. Sometimes damaged bags can be repaired. However, when Hecker gets damaged bags, he gives these away, as he does not have the equipment or facilities to do the repairs. At the end of their lives, the bags are typically recycled back into plastic and used to make other products, sometimes using equipment made by Cal Sierra.

Cal Sierra Machines
2300 S. Reservoir, Unit 307
Pomona, CA 91766
(909) 627-9807

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Last updated: August 01, 2008