Regarding the installation, chairman and founder of Compact & Bale, Steve Burnett said: “These guys came to us with an interesting challenge for their high volumes of lightweight packaging waste being sent to a sorting plant. We were able to help them achieve their goals through the application of specialist compaction.”
As UK agent for some of Europe’s leading equipment manufacturers such as Strautmann, Packmat, and Ludden & Mennekes, Compact & Bale supply the latest in intelligent compactors and bailing machines, helping customers take control of their waste output, boasting direct environmental and financial benefits as well as saving on labour with their ‘Automate to Save’ range.
With the installation of this compactor, their client has committed to reducing their waste costs, as well as time spent managing waste capacity and their carbon footprint by significantly reducing their collection volume per tonne of waste. Aiming to take the next step towards producing net zero emissions, they have already ensured their waste materials are diverted from landfill and incineration to a manual recovery facility (MRF), a specialised site that sorts recyclables from the main waste stream.
The bespoke machine features twin cylinders for the application of 50 tonnes of pressure and a fast cycle time to keep production moving smoothly. It is fitted with a unique ‘pre-crush’ system fed from 1100 litre wheelie bins. The new compactor crushes recyclables flat before they are compacted into the attached 26 cubic metre enclosed container, ensuring a 50% reduction in the number of containers filled and transported from site, as well as a half on transport costs, waste miles and carbon emissions.
Among the many advantages this compactor brings is the means to pay a fixed cost per tonne for disposal, which is ideal for transparency and ideally significantly reduces costs. This equally saves a lot of time as the accompanying container typically stores between 8-10 tonnes of waste in the bin on the back. Compare this with the average weight of waste in a bin – which can vary from 5-40kg – subsequently resulting in significant bin numbers taking up site space and due to low uncompacted bin weights can result in average monthly bills up to 10 times higher; waste bins typically result in inaccurate waste data and wildly inaccurate bills when compared with what waste is actually produced.
With every audit Compact & Bale carry out, they can provide an estimate on the total savings a given compactor could provide.
Steve went on to say: “Whilst a machine like this represents a significant investment, it will pay for itself in under two years and then continue to repay its purchase cost at least 10 or more times over the next 2 decades. This is great for our customer’s bottom line but importantly, it will save literally thousands of waste collection journeys which will play a part in saving everyone’s bottom line: our planet.”