WMEC stands sentinel over multiple contaminant drums

Situated between the floodlights of Old Trafford Football Ground and the Trafford Park Container Depot is a small family business which cleans and refurbishes tanks and drums for the chemical industry, M&N Containers. Somewhere in the region of 800 items per week are pre-cleaned, washed out, steam cleaned, rinsed with clean water and dried ready for re-use by the customer. The main contaminants in the drums on arrival are salt, detergent, light oils and acid-based compounds.


The pre-wash waste is taken off site by licensed contractors for disposal whilst the wash-out water and the steam cleaning wastewater is collected in a receptor tank. it is only the wash out and the steam cleaning wastewater which requires on-site treatment. Mike Barrett, managing director: “We needed a machine to remove the great variety of contaminants that we find in the wash water from the drums and we were advised by David Cox, our consultant, that the WMEC Sentinel wastewater treatment system would do this.”

The waste wash water runs into a 1,000-litre below-floor receptor tank. It is then pumped up to a 4,000-litre above ground holding tank and from there into a 2,000-litre Sentinel Treatment Plant. The plant removes the majority of the unwanted contaminants and adjusts the pH to meet discharge requirements. The company’s water bill has been reduced from £2,000 to £800 per month – a payback period of two years.


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