How Solus Group Supports Industrial Sustainability Efforts

For American businesses, sustainability remains a worthwhile goal. One survey showed that 87% of executives planned to increase or continue their investments in sustainability in 2025, while only 7% planned to cut back.

But within the industrial sector, sustainability efforts can be hampered by older technologies and a general lack of infrastructure. To put that another way: If your business wants to recycle materials, you need that process to make sense — it needs to fit in with your workflows and provide some sort of measurable return.

That’s where material handling equipment comes into play. At Solus Group, we’ve helped businesses find novel solutions to waste-handling challenges, allowing for a renewed focus on sustainability. 

The Link Between Sustainability and Material Handling

On a basic level, effective waste management requires moving materials from point A to point B. Ideally, that process should be ergonomic — and minimally reliant on manual effort. 

Standard Bin Dumpers can provide an excellent return out-of-the-box for many operations. Bin Dumpers lift, tilt, and dump loads with the push of a button, simplifying recycling and composting efforts. Solus Group carries an extensive selection of Bin Dumpers for that reason.

Over the past year, we’ve helped to incorporate Bin Dumpers into several key sustainability projects: 

A Glass Recycling Operation in Maui, Hawaii

In Hawaii, environmental custodianship is a core cultural value. The state has set a goal to reduce, reuse, or recycle 70% of its waste by 2030, but glass recycling poses unique issues for the Aloha State: Currently, most glass is sent to the mainland for processing.

One environmental nonprofit reached out to Solus Group to find material handling equipment that could reliably feed an onsite glass pulverizer. After considering the specifics of the use case — including the salty tropical air, the dimensions of the cradle that feeds materials into the pulverizer, and other factors — we recommended the Dumpmaster® Hydraulic Bin Dumper (DM2400). 

Today, the nonprofit has established a reliable glass recycling operation that outputs high-quality, useful recycled products for aerobic treatments.

Read the case study: Solus Group Bin Dumpers Help to Restore Hawaiian Reefs

A Composting Operation at Kean University

The President’s Sustainability Task Force at Kean University is tasked with creating sustainability initiatives that engage the campus community. One of those initiatives involved converting food waste into a functional fertilizer. 

The goal was to mix collected food scraps with kiln-dried wood shavings from several local woodworking businesses. That mixture would be aerobically digested through the composter, at which point Kean staff could research the soil’s ability to support plant growth for local landscaping projects. 

Of course, depositing the food waste into the hopper wasn’t easy; a fully-loaded 32-gallon trash bin can easily way more than 200 pounds. To solve the problem, Solus Group recommended the Dumpmaster® Hydraulic Bin Dumper with a 550-lb (250-kg) load capacity and a duty cycle of 11,000 lb (5,000 kg) per hour on continuous charge.

“The Dumpmaster is working exactly as designed,” said William Heyniger, professor at Kean University’s School of Environmental and Sustainability Sciences. “It's a quality machine and has greatly assisted us in our composting operations. It’s awesome.”

Read the case study: Bin Dumpers Help Bring Composting to Campus at Kean University

Community Composting on Block Island (Rhode Island)

The Block Island Conservancy reached out to Solus Group for help with their community’s composting project, which utilized an eco drum (a large-vessel composting system) for efficient decomposition. 

Materials needed to be loaded into the Ecodrum™ system at a specific height. The equipment would need to operate outdoors (which meant that ingress protection was a factor) and handle heavy loads regularly throughout the day. 

Once again, our team recommended a Dumpmaster® DM2400 model. In this case, the Bin Dumper was equipped with a frame-mounted tipping chute to prevent spillage and maintain a clean work environment. Our team coordinated with the Block Island Conservancy to ship the dumpster to a Rhode Island ferry location, and the unit has made the composting operation more scalable — and less reliant on mainland infrastructure.   

Read the case study: Community Composting on Block Island

Find Material Handling Equipment for Your Sustainability Initiative

In these cases, the Simpro Dumpmaster® provided the best balance of power, versatility, and durability — sometimes with minor modifications to suit the use case. In other instances, we might recommend Tilt Tables and Lift Tables for better work positioning, the Nu-Star PowerPusher® for moving heavy bins, or a completely custom-built material handling solution to meet the needs of the job at hand.

By drawing on decades of material handling experience, Solus Group makes recommendations that lead to a return on investment with minimal lead times. Whether you’re building a recycling initiative or looking for ways to improve your current strategy, we’re here to help. 

Call (314) 696-0200 to speak with a member of our team or describe your project for a free quote.