MVO Articles
Showing Some Dedication?
After 12 months' trial, Guildford Borough Council has ordered a new fleet for its new Recycling Works scheme. Malcolm Bates paid a visit to see what makes it special
Two editorial items in this issue on kerbside recyclers? What's going on? After all, is it not the case that of all the waste sector vehicles on the road, they have the poorest utilisation record? Think about it - these units are designed to only load recyclable materials - often after a painfully long period standing by the roadside, while the crew shuffle and sort from an untidy collection of plastic boxes, bags and bins. It may well work well enough in the wide open spaces of a midwest suburban USA, or down-under where life proceeds at a slower pace. But in an overcrowded UK? Surely not.
Ten years ago I'd have said this is yet another example of cheap, US-inspired "engineering" that was designed around the concept of getting the job done with the least amount of capital investment. To my mind, back then, the use of such vehicles (a) held up the traffic, (b) held up the workforce and (c) enabled lazy governments, local authorities and contractors to give the appearance of "doing something" in the name of recycling, without actually investing in long-term infrastructure.
A damning indictment against the whole concept of kerbside sorting, then? Well, yes. So what's changed? The move by so many authorities to go over to bi-weekly collections of household waste is probably the starting point. It's a fudge to suggest that doing an essential job (domestic waste collection) half as often can in anyway be in the interests of "the customer". And, as might be predicted, the sometimes heavy-handed and insensitive approach by some authorities has resulted in on-going anger and criticism. And remember, we haven't even had a really long, hot summer yet…
The recent proliferation of bi-weekly collections has also made the manufacturers of traditional compaction-type RCVs a bit nervous about a trend that could potentially reduce the market by 50 percent. At the same time, many of the original exponents of kerbside collection are in the process of replacing ageing fleets. So the compaction-type RCV manufacturers are doing all they can to promote the view that the kerbside recycler - arguably a quick and cheap(ish) fix to get a recycling operation up and running - has now been eclipsed by more recent split-hopper RCVs. They argue that co-mingled collections can now be advocated because there is finally some infrastructure in place to sort the stuff out, in-plant. In other words, the kerbside recyclables collection vehicle is a "has been".
Hmmmm… if that's the case, then why is Guildford Borough Council depot in Woking Road jam-pack full of brand new Dennis Terberg "Kerbsiders"? And if all the issues we've just been looking at have any merit, why am I here? The answer to these questions comes down to four words: dedicated food waste collections. There's been a lot of talk about this in recent months, but while bi-weekly domestic waste collection is a "negative" for householders, the argument is that if all the food waste - what I was always taught to call "putrescibles" - were removed from the normal bin and treated as a "waste stream" in their own right, then the complaints about "rats the size of donkeys" (I may have over-emphasised that for effect), swarms of blue bottles and the nasty pongs would go away. Wherever you stand on this issue, I think we could all agree, that the argument for dedicated food waste collections makes sense.
The tough bit is finding the best way to collect it. It has to be easy to operate, otherwise householders just won't bother. And if collections don't take place regularly, we're back to square one on the pong front. The key issue here is one of "speed", or "time", if you prefer. For example, a crew working on domestic waste collection with a rear-mounted bin-lifter-equipped compaction-type RCV soon build up a momentum on the round. Asking them to also collect something odd - like a much smaller food waste bin and a side bin-lifter - breaks the "flow".
A Successful Trial
What makes the recent 12 month-long trial in Guildford so interesting is that with the whole fleet of recyclable units up for replacement, the decision was made to investigate whether recycling vehicle utilisation could be increased by the fitting of a dedicated food waste pod. The answer from the trial is very clear - yes it can. The collection speed of a multi-compartment kerbside loading recycler (slower than an ordinary RCV) is not really further reduced by adding an additional food waste compartment. In other words, it doesn't add to operational costs - like putting food waste collections on a compaction machine might. And it also has the benefit of not requiring a fleet of "special" RCVs, with all the potential replacement hire problems, either.
So how do Guildford residents feel? A stonking 92 percent satisfaction vote from participating residents, for the system to be on-going. Over 90 percent! Residents changed their habits too, with recycling rates in the trial area increasing to 64 percent. This in a democratic country that is lucky to see a 45 percent turnout when it's time to change the government!
The result of their stonking vote of confidence is in front of me now: a new fleet of Terberg Kerbsiders fitted with smart Agripa side display panels, with graphic messages that will help local residents understand the new collection systemborough-wide, when the new round structure goes live, any day now.
Vote Of Satisfaction
And a "new system" it is. By the time you read this, an entire new fleet of six P2-20 Dennis Phoenix RCVs and a total of 17 Kerbsiders will have started work. To coincide with dedicated food waste collections, the opportunity has also been taken to redesign the rounds to further increase efficiency. But recognising that the new units are longer than those they replace, two compact Farid satellite units - also with food pods - on 7.5-tonne Iveco chassis have also been specified to undertake collections in areas of restricted areas.
So how does household food waste collection operation work in practice? In order to get a preview, I went out with the trial unit in one of the leafier suburbs of Guildford, a few weeks back. Having started out as a sceptic of the kerbside collection principal - which I still am - it has to be said, when the food waste collection element is added, the whole concept makes more sense.
Most Kerbsider units have, in effect, a maximum of four main compartments. In Guildford's case, each box takes two materials: paper and plastic, cans and mixed glass. These are then sorted into the four panniers on the vehicle, by the crew; an extra compartment ahead of the main body takes the food waste.
Two optional smaller compartments at the rear "bustle" of the body can be used to collect items such as used batteries. Getting the optimum ratio of material in each compartment is clearly vital, as the weight of each can vary. So it's interesting to note that in spite of scepticism from… well, people like me I suppose, the team at Guildford Borough Council, managed by head of operational services, James Whiteman, and implemented by fleet and waste operations manager, Paul Wells, has built on experience gained out of two previous generations of Terberg Kerbsider. One change, made in conjunction with the fitting of the food waste pod, has been the move from a normal long wheelbase 4x2 chassis to the addition of a narrow track mid axle to remove any danger of axle overload.
There are two additional factors that may well have played a part in this story - the provision of what Paul Wells refers to as a "bumper-to-bumper" warranty package from Dennis Eagle, with an emergency callout function from the manufacturer's Croydon depot. "That is worth a great deal to us," he explained. Indeed, it both helps reduce the need for "spare" vehicles, or worse, a breakdown in the provision of what would otherwise be a high quality service to a general public - which in a place like Guildford, probably wouldn't tolerate anything less than the best.
In addition to the Dennis provision, local Terberg special projects engineer, Paul Rochester, is a familiar face around the Guildford Borough Council depot - at least judging by the "familiar banter" he has with staff! The fact that Terberg has won both the Kerbsider and Omnidel bin-lift orders from Guildford has, no doubt, been as a result of the fact that Terberg has, in addition to Paul's attentions, a team of mobile service engineers available to keep an eye on things.
So what do the results of the Guildford trial prove to the rest of us? Firstly, kerbside recyclers are not a "cheap solution" - a new fleet for a half decent-sized place like Guildford (population 130 000) is going to cost several million pounds. Secondly, round collection speeds are considerably slower than with compaction-type RCVs. And thirdly? Utilisation rates of kerbside collection units will always be low - you can't collect anything else with them.
Payloads are also low, but he inclusion of a dedicated leachate leak-proof food waste pod really could change things. To the point where you may want to visit Guildford and see things for yourself, perhaps? It's worth noting that CIWM Business Club member, Dennis Eagle, the exclusive chassis supplier, is trying to organise that very thing.
Contacts
Paul Rochester, Terberg:
+44 (0)7917 792155
