Innovation extends options for recycling managers

New designs and improvements on established equipment, many of which were on show at this year's RWM exhibition, are providing recycling and fleet managers with an increasingly sophisticated range of specialised vehicles and accessories. LAWE Editor Alexander Catto reports


On display at the NEC was a compact 7.5 tonne side loading compactor, “The Scavenger” from Trent Industries, mounted on an Iveco Eurocargo chassis. Offered as a versatile unit typically for use on scattered, constricted or satellite operations, for one man operation, the vehicle has a two tonne- plus payload. Features include compaction whilst in motion, an automatic compaction cycle and push-out ejection.

There is a side door open cut out and the tailgate is fitted with raise and lower controls at the side of the body. Reversing and rotating beacons are fitted and there

a reverse alarm and rear view camera are fitted.

The highly versatile and familiar Multicar was also on view at the RWM show in a waste collection role on the Wilkie Recycling Systems stand.

The four wheel drive, compact and manoeuvrable Multicar M26, billed as a “universal special transporter” has a gvw rating of 4.87 tonnes and has three attachment areas for implements. The vehicle is powered by a Euro 111 Iveco 66kW turbo diesel engine.

This year’s RWM show at the NEC saw the latest development of ATF’s Dest-Separated, Multi-Material Collection Vehicle System, OSKAR, which was launched at last year’s exhibition.

Now in service with both local authority and contractor fleets, the OSKAR system has additional bin configurations, including higher capacity steel and lightweight GRP/aluminium variants.

ATF has added a number of additional features and options including a hand wash facility and equipment storage. Other refinements include a side-mounted household container lift, under chassis storage for textiles and configurations to suit both lighter and heavier vehicle chassis.

OSKAR (Operative Separated Adjacent Recycling) is a multi-bin system that is designed to optimise payload. The system uses a 7.5 tonne gvw vehicle and has a crew of two. Smaller 3.5 tonne base variants and larger capacity uprated version are also planned. The design is registered.

The key departure from conventional design and practice with OSKAR is the absence of an enclosed overall body structure and the location of the container bins at a level low enough to provide immediate access for operatives directly from the kerbside.

The basic design is built around a four or six container bin configuration, for use with any combination of multi-material recycling. Further sub-division of the bins is also possible, for instance, to sort different types of glass.

Innovation on demo

Aberdeenshire has taken delivery of a further eight HN Logistic Speedline side-loading refuse vehicles with 27 accompanying bodies to increase the effectiveness of its waste collection systems. One of the Aberdeenshire vehicles was on demo at RWM 2005.

The HN Speedline model acquired by Aberdeenshire Councils Waste Services operates a demountable body system. This means that the task of collecting the waste can be separated from the task of transporting that waste to the disposal sites. This can give important logistical advantages to council waste collection and disposal services, particularly in large geographical areas such as Aberdeenshire where a conventional vehicle along with its crew can spend anything up to three hours travelling to a waste disposal site.

The county council’s new fleet allows the collection crews to undertake waste collection until the body is full, drop the body at predesignated location, pick-up an empty one and continue with the collection. The movement of the body containing the waste is then taken to the site by a hooklift vehicle.

Alistair Black, Waste Manager – Services, said: “This method of operation ensures that we no longer have many hours of unproductive time as vehicles and crews travel long distances to disposal points. It also allows the luxury of reducing our refuse collection fleet by over a third and stops the practice of expensive vehicles having to go on to landfill sites, which has in the past cost us considerable sums of money due to damage.

“The use of demountable waste containers in a region such as ours frees-up the time of our valuable crews. As an increased level of kerbside recycling is a strategic goal, it is important we have the manpower to achieve this goal. The use of HN Logistic Speedline demountables will help in this, allowing the council to provide a better environment and a better service to all its residents.”

The vehicle demonstration area at RWM 2005 also featured an innovative, electrically powered bin lift system shown by Ecopress. Designed in Iceland, the Isbjorn and Thorbjorn bin lifts are light weight and interchangeable and are stated to offer up to one ton of increased payload for every collection round. Safety is a main advantage promoted for the bins which have smooth surfaces, power regulation and obstacle detection.

The Isbjorn is a dual comb electric bin lift with a lifting capacity for all types of two and four wheeled bins of up to 1,100 litres capacity. Quoted cycle times, which are adjustable, are nine seconds for two wheeled bins and 14 seconds for four wheeled bins. Function modes are automatic, semi-automatic and manual.

The Thorbjorn is single comb electric bin lift.

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