Here you see the “Pit,” which is about the size of a football field. It was built to hold a week’s worth of the county’s garbage. Garbage typically stays in the Pit 2-3 days to get mixed and dry out before being put in one of three boilers. These boilers can process 3,000 tons of garbage a day or more than 660 curbside trucks worth of trash.
We have 3 grapples, or claws, that can operate in this building. The claws are used to “fluff” or mix the incoming garbage and also to drop the garbage into one of three boilers. These claws can pick up between 5 tons and 9 tons of garbage at one time. That is about the size and weight of a Tyrannosaurus Rex!
The three boilers can each burn approximately 5 claws worth of material per hour. Each claw usually grabs about the yearly waste for a family of four.
