*Recyclii
By JOHN LOMBARD
Daily Staff Reporter
Dan Mcqueer can transform mat-
ter.
As a Recycle Ann Arbor em-
-ployee, he takes old milk jugs and
turns them into plastic bails that he in
turn sells to companies around the
state.
The bails are processed into prod-
ucts such as yarn or new milk jugs.
As plantmanager, Mequeerknows
how important recycling education is
-for the public.
"The more the public knows what
ito do to prepare that material the bet-
:ter for us. It helps us significantly,"
taMcqueer said.
"There's a philosophy behind re-
cycling, of course. To better the cor-
- :munity by creating employment and
-offering a cleaner environment. It's a
-~biggy for us."
The plant's life blood is contained
yin each Recycle Ann Arbor truck. The
'trucks return from 10-hour pickup
runs through the city or the Univer-
asity and deposit their mixed recycling
tems into one of the two large metal
pits called hoppers.
The materials travel along a short
'conveyer belt that loads the mix onto
the main conveyer belt. The conveyer
then takes all items up 30 feet to a
large metal house, called by the Re-
cycle Ann Arbor workers, "The
Trailer in the Sky."
Mcqueer explains that the mate-
ral is"... going to go up the conveyer
belt from the hoppers to mechanical
and manual separation. That's where
you get your different sorts of your
different types of material."
Mcqueer points at "The Trailer In
The Sky" and says, "This used to be a
potato separator." The separator, of-
ficially known as the Lenko Sortator,
has been at Recycle Ann Arbor since
" Ascending the steps into the trailer,
the noise gets incredibly loud as
Mcqueer details the processes inside.
Once inside the trailer, he ex-
plains that the main conveyer belt
passes a huge fan that blows light
items, No. 1 plastic and aluminum,
onto another conveyer belt. The
heavier glass unaffected by the fan
stays on the main conveyer where it
will head off to another part of the
trailer to be sorted.
Theplastie~then goes down a con-
veyer to a worker who takes all num-
ber one PET plastic, such as soda pop
containers, off the conveyer belt. It is
at this point that recycler carelessness
can cause a problem. Placing the
wrong numbered plastic container
wastes resources.
The sorting worker's other job is
oremove tops from the milk jugs.The
milk jugs then go down a 30-foot
shoot into a large metal holding area
called a "roll-off." Mcqueer calls this
pile of jugs "natural plastic." He con-
siders it the best recycling material.
The roll-off is picked up by a con-
tainer trailer. Mcqueer illustrates
trailer operation. "This big hoist raises

up. You've got this big cable up here
't the very tip. This cable comes all
the way down and hooks onto that
box (the roll-off) and sucks it up with
a hydraulic winch" onto the trailer.
Once the loaded roll-off is securely
on the container trailer, it is pulled by
a tractor trailer and taken to Recycle
Ann Arbor's bailing and loading area
called the Barn.
The Barn is the largest building in
Jhe area and it is where Recycle Ann
Arbor materials are compressed into
bails. The tractor unloads the natural
plastic into the bailer's hopper.
The tractors back into the Barn
and dump the roll-off contents into
the Barn's hopper. From the Barn's
hopper, the plastic goes up another
conveyer belt 35 feet high and dumps
it into a large compactor or bailer.
The bails ejected from the bailer
veigh 480 pounds each, although
Mcqueer explains, "Bail weight var-
ies every day." According to Mcqueer,
newspaper bails the same size as the
plastic bails can weigh as much as
1,200 pounds.
The bails are moved from the bailer
by a fork lift to a truck a delivery truck
that will take the bails to one of the
processing mills.
Mcqueer said being a worker on
the plant can be difficult. "Get up in
the morning (at 6:30 a.m.). Hop on a

The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, October 25, 1994 - 7

gA20
ng A2: from start to finish
Bin to Bail
After plastic milk jugs are put in the recycling bins with other recyclables and all the bins are
collected, a Recycle Ann Arbor truck takes the load to the processing plant to be sorted and prepared
to be sold to firms specializing in remolding plastic.

A conveyor belt system takes the materials
30 feet up to a metal house, called the
"Trailer in the Sky," where they are sorted.

j

After'the aluminum is The mix on the
mechanically sorted from conveyer belt
the plastic, a worker passes a hugef
removes tops from the that blows light
milk jugs and number one i, temis- plastic
plastic, such as 2-liter and aluminum -
bottles, from the stream. onto another
conveyer belt.
The remaining milk jugs roll into another
holding area, where this "natural plastic" is
taken by trailer to Recycle Ann Arbor's bailing
area -- a 10,000-square foot "Barn."

From the Barn's hopper,
anotherconveyer belt system
raises the jugs 35 feet and
dumps them into a large
bailer - which compacts
the plastic into 480-pound
blocks.
front loader and you've got that breeze
on you and you got your hands cold."
In addition to the elements, the
primary danger for a worker is glass
puncture wounds. Currently, there are
no gloves that can protect the sorters
from glass shards and give them
enough dexterity.
"We got some of the best gloves in
the business," Mcqueer said, but even
with Kevlar inserts, the workers still
get cuts.
In addition to worker puncture
wounds, glass can spray from the
machines and cause eye injuries.
Other plant hazards include work-
ing in the Barn's operating area which
has a slick floor, moving forklifts and
backing trailers. "The Barn is 10,000
square feet, but that's small" for a

fan -
The bails are moved from the bailer by
a fork lift to a delivery truck that will
take the bails to one of Recycle Ann
Arbor buyers or processing mills.
- +
JONATHAN BERNDT/Daly
yaid. Arbor's contamination record has
lantman- been "wonderful. We do quiet well
n with mill with contamination. Again it's be-
tthe bails cause the public helps us out by tak-
ich as con- ing off the milk jug caps. That's a
bggy right there."
aing has The price per pound of natural
aargaining plastic is "up most of the time its
around eight or nine cents," Mcqueer
aggressive said. Due to supply and demand, the
n they call price he is offered for his plastic can
ly, you're fluctuate.
unch back "There's a purpose for me in
life. Today, its here," said Mcqueer.
ot the only "This is actually my first job. I've
buyers can been here about three and half years.
appy with ... If I was a single person I would
ality, then work for Mother Theresa, but since
I'm married, I'm happy to work
cle Ann here."

recycling plant, Mcqueer s
In addition to his job asf
ager, Mcqueer must bargar
buyers. The mills convert
into new plastic products su
tainers and clothing yarns.
The economic upsv
strengthened Mcqueer's b
position with the buyers.
"Markets today are so o
that I don't have to call then
me. Now all of a sudden, 'H
my buddy.' I had to buy It
then. They buy lunch now
Recycle Ann Arbor is n(
processing plant that they t
go to. If a buyer is unh
Recycle Ann Arbor's qu
they will go elsewhere.
Mcqueer said Recy

The Washington Post
NEW DELHI, India s- The assas-
sination of Sri Lanka's leading oppo-
sition presidential candidate yester-
day by a suspected suicide bomber
has thrown the nation into political
disarray and jeopardized a fledgling
peace process aimed at settling the
country'si -year-old civil war with
Tamil separatists.
The bomb blast killed Gamini
Dissanayake and at least 51 others -
including several leaders of the oppo-
sition United National Party - dur-
ing a packed campaign rally on the
outskirts of Colombo, the capital.
Coming only 17 days be-fore presi-
dential elections, the attack followed
a pattern of violent elections in the
islandsnation off India's southeastern
coast.
Yesterday's bombing, which oc-
curred just after midnight and mo-
ments after Dissanayake, 52, had con-
eluded a political speech, was be-
lieved by police to have been deto-
nated by a woman who tied a bomb to
her body and sat in one of the front
rows at the rally.
Police said a woman's head was
found on a rooftop about 30 yards
from the stage where the blast oc-
curred.
Al though police have not officially
accused any person or group in the
attack, United National Party offi-
cials and many others in the country
blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamnil
Eelam, the minority group that is fight-
ing a civil war for a separate state 111
northern Sri Lanka and has carried
out numerous assassinations with sui-
cide bombers.
In radio messages to their fighters,

I ' '1
AP PHOTO
The bodies of about 50 victims of a bomb blast at an opposition party rally
in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo lie on the ground yesterday.
SiLanka bo-mbing
kills 52 candidates

however, the Tigers' leaders said they
were not involved in the attack, The
Associated Press reported from
Colombo.
Other officials raised questions
about the Tamil Tigers' likely mo-
tives at a time when the two sides
were involved in their first serious
peace talks in years. The government
was scheduled to begin its second
round of talks with Tamil leaders yes-
terday in the besieged northern city of
Jaffna, but it now has suspended the
talks indefinitely.
"It is a deep blow to the demo-
cratic process," said Neelan
Tiruchelvam, a constitutional lawyer
who heads a private Colombo think
tank, the International Center for Eth-
n ic Studies. "It reduces the possibility
of a real political consensus. The lines
of confrontation will become more
sharply drawn."
Just 17 months ago, the country's
president, Ranasinghe Premadasa,
was assassinated by a suicide bomber
who strapped a bomb to his body and
rammed his bicycle into the presiden-;
tial party during a May Day parade;
Officials accused the Tigers of the
assassination, although their leaders
have denied responsibility. The week
before Premadasa' s death, a lone gun-
man assassinated his chief political
rival.
Prime Minister Chandrika
Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, whose
People's Alliance party recently de-
feated the United National Party in
parliamentary elections, ending their
17 years in power, and who is consid-
ered the leading presidential candi-
date, condemned her opponent's as-
sassination as a "barbaric act."

CLEARING THE WAY

Raul Julia, 54, 'Addams Family'
star, dies after massive stroke

Newsday
NEW YORK - Raul Julia, the
stage and film actor whose range eas-
ily encompassed classic tragedy like
"Othello" and campy comedy like
"The Addams Family," died yester-
day of complications following a
massive stroke he suffered last week.
He was 54.
Dr. Francisco Garcia, one of the
physicians overseeing Julia's care at
North Shore University Hospital in
Manhasset, N.Y., said Julia had been
in a coma "practically since the time
of the stroke," calling earlier reports
that Julia was improving and doctors
optimistic about his chances of re-
covery "misinformed."
Responding to reports that Julia
had a pre-existing condition - either
cancer or AIDS - Garcia said, "All I
can comment on is that which is re-
lated to his stroke. He definitely did
not have AIDS."

He will be given a state funeral in
Puerto Rico Thursday, The Associ-
ated Press reported.
By the end of his long career,
writers and critics had overcome ear-
lier tendencies to label him a Puerto
Rican actor, and he was characterized
the way he wanted to be, simply as an
actor, without regard to his origins.
Even after years of acting, though,
he retained a graceful Spanish accent.
Some of his most memorable portray-
als for film and television were
Latinos, among them the jailed revo-
lutionary in "Kiss of the Spider
Woman," the assassinated Salvadoran
Archbishop Oscar Romero and, most
recently, the murdered Brazilian union
leader Chico Mendes.
Several reviews of "The Burning
Season," the Mendes biography tele-
cast on HBO Sept. 17, noted that the
usually robust Julia was gaunt, "star-
tlingly" so, one critic said. There were

also published reports at that time that
he had cancer. In a September inter-
view with Newsday, he denied th6
cancer reports.
It was only toward the end of
Julia's career that his work was con-
centrated in movies and television.
Before that, he was one of New York
City's busiest stage actors, part of a
group that included Kevin Kline and
Meryl Streep, who were regulars at
Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare
Festival in the 1970s.
Tall and nimble, Julia moved
around the stage as if he were danc-
ing. (He can be seen actually dancing
in the 1989 movie "Tango Bar.")
Among his sensual facial features,
the strongest were his eyes. Some-
times they seemed ready to pop out of
their sockets; at other times, opened
to their widest aperture, they rolled
around like boats bobbing in a heavy
sea.


MICHAEL FITZHUGH/Daily

Tuesday, October25
7:30-9:00 pm
Sponsored with English Department
Michigan Union Kuenzel Room
Tuesday, November 1
7:00-8:30 pm
Sponsored with College of Engineering
North Campus, 1311 EECS

University horticulturist Dale Laughner clears leaves from a sidewalk in the
Law Quad yesterday.


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