Recycling and waste-processing facilities can generate persistent industrial noise from shredders, conveyors, crushers, motors, pumps, chillers, fans, blowers, furnaces, and material-handling equipment. When these operations are located near homes, businesses, or property lines, equipment noise can become a community concern and create pressure for better site-wide noise control. The current Sound Fighter page identifies many of these same sources as common contributors to recycling facility noise.
Sound Fighter® Systems designs absorptive sound barrier walls for recycling facilities and other heavy industrial sites. Unlike hard reflective surfaces that can redirect sound, absorptive barriers help reduce reflected sound energy while interrupting the direct sound path between noisy equipment and nearby receivers.
For scrap metal recyclers, material recovery facilities, waste-processing plants, transfer operations, and other industrial recycling sites, the right barrier can help control noise at equipment areas, along property lines, and around sensitive neighboring properties.
Noise Pollution in Recycling Facilities
What machines create so much noise that would merit the need for professional recycling facility noise reduction? Here are some examples:
- Conveyor systems that transport waste all over the facility
- Automobile shredders
- Burners and furnaces
- Boilers
- Pumps
- Chillers
- Motor engines
- Industrial fans and blowers
Waste management and recycling facilities typically run multiple processes like gasification, boiling, and odor control. The machines that execute these processes produce sound, it is unavoidable. This explains why nearby residents or business owners report disturbing amounts of noise pollution. If left unchecked, noise pollution will become a source of friction between the facility and the community.
Employees of the recycling facility could also be harmed by the noise pollution created by the equipment within the facility. In order for employees to have a safe working environment, it’s important that recycling facility noise mitigation efforts be implemented.
Why Is Recycling Facility Noise Reduction Important?
Persistent noise disturbance is detrimental to a community because it reduces the area’s overall desirability. No one wants to live surrounded by unbearable noise pollution or spend more time than they have to in such areas. It’s not an exaggeration to say that recycling facilities can be detrimental to nearby residential and commercial communities. As well as become an undesirable place to work if employees are suffering from the harmful effects of noise pollution.
Considering the inevitability of noise pollution in waste management and recycling facilities, exploring solutions to reduce the noise they generate is even more important. Moreover, unless the facility is completely removed and isolated from nearby residential and commercial centers, maintaining peace with the surrounding community is part of its social responsibility.
Here are more reasons to install effective soundproofing solutions and achieve significant recycling facility noise reduction:
- To Earn the City’s Approval: Any facility that claims to operate to serve the public must walk the talk. If you have the public’s favor, you have a better chance of earning the city’s support for future projects.
- To Have Longevity: Another reason for earning the public’s approval is getting their long-term support. Environmentally conscious citizens are also socially aware, and they are more likely to patronize facilities that have the community’s best interests at heart.
- To Elevate the Community: Taking extra steps to reduce noise pollution shows your sincerity about serving the community.
- To Improve Workplace Conditions: The OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) declared the legal limit for workplace noise exposure to 90dBA for an eight-hour workday and that this applies to all employment levels. Implementing effective recycling facility noise reduction will help you stay compliant.
Mitigating Noise Pollution in Recycling Facilities With Sound Walls
Industrial noise is inevitable in facilities like recycling centers where tons of materials undergo intense processes like boiling, steaming, and compression. Most of the time, facilities mitigate the noise by building enclosures around noise-producing machines.
The problem is that many use the wrong materials to build noise mitigation enclosures. They pick wood, PVC, steel sheets, cinder blocks, and concrete because they are abundant and cheap. Some of these products also contain known carcinogens like vinyl chloride. Unfortunately, these materials are often reflective and don’t absorb sound waves. They reflect sound waves instead, so they fail to reduce noise pollution.
Sound Fighter Systems course-corrects by providing effective sound walls that break down sound waves and absorb them instead of redirecting noise in every direction.
Sound Fighter Systems sound walls are composed of the following materials:
- Sound panels made of fiberglass or aluminum with spherical perforations.
- Premium absorptive material for trapping and dissolving sound waves.
- UV coating and non-corrosion treatment for exterior sound walls.
These modular sound walls are highly customizable: our engineers can design them to accommodate different machine sizes or perimeter lengths. We also designed the sound walls with a shiplap exterior for aesthetic appeal.
The result? Durable, low-maintenance sound walls that can withstand outdoor elements and significantly reduce noise levels.
Superior Recycling Facility Noise Mitigation From the Industry’s Best
Sound Fighter Systems has been designing, manufacturing, and continuously developing sound absorptive walls since 1973. Today, our sound walls are among the best-performing outdoor noise barriers in the country. These sound walls are durable, versatile, and used in various industries and venues, from high-rise corporate buildings and apartment complexes to manufacturing facilities.
If you need an effective and lasting solution for reducing noise pollution in recycling facilities, our patented soundproofing walls are the answer.
Achieve maximum noise attenuation in your recycling facility with Sound Fighter Systems. Contact us to learn more about our process and how to get started.
Frequently Asked Questions About Recycling Facility Noise Reduction
What causes noise at recycling facilities?
Recycling facility noise can come from automobile shredders, conveyors, crushers, motors, pumps, chillers, fans, blowers, furnaces, boilers, vehicle activity, and material handling. Multiple machines often operate at the same time, creating a mix of continuous mechanical noise and intermittent impact noise. Sound Fighter’s current page specifically lists conveyors, automobile shredders, burners, furnaces, boilers, pumps, chillers, engines, fans, and blowers as common sources.
How do sound barriers reduce recycling facility noise?
Sound barriers reduce noise by interrupting the direct sound path between industrial equipment and nearby receivers. Absorptive barriers also reduce reflected sound energy, which is useful around recycling facilities where concrete pads, metal buildings, equipment housings, retaining walls, and other hard surfaces can reflect noise.
Why use absorptive barriers instead of concrete or metal walls?
Concrete, masonry, sheet metal, and other hard materials can block some direct sound but also reflect acoustic energy. Absorptive sound barriers are designed to reduce those reflections at the barrier surface, helping limit secondary sound paths around equipment areas and property lines.
What recycling equipment can be screened with sound barriers?
Sound barriers may be used around shredders, conveyors, crushers, pumps, chillers, blowers, fans, motors, processing lines, loading areas, and other fixed equipment. The barrier layout should be based on the actual noise source, receiver location, equipment height, operating access, and site conditions.
Can sound barriers be installed along a recycling facility property line?
Yes. Sound barriers can be used along property lines when the goal is to reduce the amount of industrial noise reaching nearby residences, businesses, or public areas. Barrier height, length, placement, terrain, gaps, and nearby structures all affect performance.
Can recycling facility sound barriers allow equipment and vehicle access?
Yes. Sound barrier systems can be designed around operational needs such as personnel access, vehicle gates, service clearances, conveyors, utilities, drainage, and equipment maintenance. Those requirements should be addressed during design so noise control does not interfere with normal facility operations.
