Why the time is right to add recycling equipment to your fleet

While the plant industry may feel as if it’s grinding to a halt, in sectors like waste and recycling the outlook is good and likely to remain so. What’s even better is that the construction sector, in other words many of your existing customers, are being targeted to halve waste going to landfill by 2012.

According to the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), the construction industry is responsible for about one-third of the UK’s rubbish and produces around 120 million tonnes of building, demolition and excavation waste each year. And about 25 million tonnes of that waste ends up in landfill each year Ð and it is that figure that is targeted to be halved by 2012. This not only provides opportunities for plant and equipment manufacturers, distributors and hirers, but also for contractors as case studies show recycling can pay for itself, saving up to 1.5% of construction value.

To meet the government’s target, every stage of the construction supply chain in both private and public sectors must play its part: from clients and developers, to designers, manufacturers, contractors and the waste management industry. WRAP provides tools and guidance to help achieve waste reduction targets. It has a network of regional advisors to provide recycling businesses with advice on developing their operations. This can range from technical input and market insight, to strategic marketing guidance and even funding for an experienced interim manager.

Residual value

WRAP’s eQuip scheme provides a guarantee on the future residual value of machinery and plant at the end of an agreed lease period. This is a big help for companies trying to secure finance for plant and reduces the monthly payments. It even has a panel of banks and leasing companies that will consider leasing plant and machinery to the recycling sector. And, unlike overdrafts, leases are not (usually) repayable on demand or subject to annual reviews.

To qualify for WRAP’s help, the current or planned activity must involve sorting, reprocessing, recycling or manufacturing with recycled content from one or more of a range of materials including aggregates, plasterboard, glass, plastic, wood, paper, tyres, batteries or organic waste materials. The organisation is waiting to hear from companies who feel they may qualify.

At the equipment end of things, there have been a number of changes recently, most notably Terex’s decision to merge the Pegson name into the Powerscreen brand to create one of the world’s largest suppliers of mobile crushing and screening equipment. The move follows the creation earlier this year of two centres of excellence in Northern Ireland: one in Dungannon, where Powerscreen screening equipment is produced; and one in Omagh, where crushing equipment is built.

Scandanavian-based Sandvik, which bought Extec and Fintec in June 2007, has gone down a similar route, setting up a centre of excellence for its mobile crushing and screening products and incorporating both brands under the Sandvik banner. The rebranding incorporates a change of nomenclature, as well as adopting Sandvik’s orange and grey colour scheme. Swadlingcote now produces the mobile crushers, including those previously produced by Sandvik, and has become home to a new parts store for the complete range of screens and crushers.

In addition to changing all the names and colours, Sandvik has added a higher capacity heavyweight scalping screen capable of processing up to 600t/hr.

There have also been recent changes on the supply of Rubble Master crushers, with long-established distributor Haulmark Equipment taking over responsibility for the whole of the UK and Ireland. The three-machine range starts with a hooklift-mounted 12.5t unit capable of processing between 50t/hr and 60t/hr, while the most popular is the RM70 (19.5t/hr-120t/hr) which is track-mounted, as is its bigger sister the 24t/hr- 150t/hr TRM80.

A newcomer to the market, Rotajaw, used SED to show its new Twinjaw crusher, which it says has double the throughput of traditional machines. Its 22t tracked unit has a capacity of 200t/hr. The design uses two static jaws and a pivoted ‘toggle jaw’, which swings forward to crush the material in front of the jaw and
allow the void behind to refill. The jaw is then powered backwards to crush the new material and refill the front void. According to the company, this means there are no ‘wasted’ strokes, which improves both fuel efficiency and throughput.

Established suppliers

Other more established crusher suppliers include Baughans, Bradgate and Portafill International, while the likes of Global Construction market the Guidetti range, HT Services (Nakayama) and Molson (OM Crushers). Other names to look out for on the screening side include CGCS, Kings Feeders, McClosky and Techno Screen.

However, as more and more construction contracts specify waste cannot be taken off site, a raft of small and mini crushers and screens have been introduced and there is now an ever-expanding range of excavator-mounted attachments to crush and sort waste on site.

One of the innovators in the mini-crusher market was Red Rhino. Earlier this year, the company was bought out of administration by Winfleld Engineering and manufacturing of its 4000, 5000 and 7000 series (10t 700 x 400mm in-feed) crushers has been transferred to Grantham. Managing director Simon Winfield says: “We have been listening to customers and are making a number of changes on the machines.”

At SED, the company showed its new freestanding 2000 Multiform, which has the same crushing capabilities as the tracked 4000 machine but without the engine and conveyor. Instead, the skid-mounted 2000 has a hydraulic motor that can be powered from an independent powerpack or any machine with an auxiliary flow of
28lit/min at 150bar, and at below £14,000 it is around half the price of a 4000.

Its 400mm x 170mm in-feed can accommodate paving slabs and the crushed material is discharged from the side without a stockpiling conveyor. It can be mounted on top of a skip, held on pallet forks or coupled via a three-point linkage. According to Winfield, the 2000’s uses “are only limited by peoples’ imagination”.

Also set for launch in the near future is the 3000 Multiform Ð a bigger version of the 2000 with an output conveyor and the crushing power of the tracked 5000 machine. The 1.6t machine will have a 500mm x 250mm in-feed capacity and can crush a kerbstone in less than 40 seconds.

There are also mini-sized offerings from the likes of Mace Industries, while Bav Crushers spans both the standalone and attachment market. The mini standalone tracked jaw crushers range from 750kg to 3t (in-feeds from 359mm x 315mm to 630mm x 330mm). The Alligator attachments fit machines from 500kg to 50t and have jaw openings from 160mm to 1m. The company has just doubled the Alligator’s warranty to two years and calculates that by using the attachment, a builder relaying a 37m² patio will save £475 by crushing and recycling the existing base rather than sending it to landfill and buying new aggregate.

Attachment supplier Dig-A-Crusher is now marketing a range of rotating and vibrating screening units for wheel loaders, in addition to those for excavators. The new screens have capacities from 0.8m³ (5t to 9t machines), to 3m³ for bigger (16t to 20t) units.

A newcomer to this market is Westquay, which is marketing the four-strong range of CBE crushing buckets to fit excavators from 10t to 50t with processing capacities between 24t/hr and 58t/hr of spoil from 0mm-50mm.

Double offering

By way of contrast, one of the longest-established players in the market is Anross, which started with screening buckets and now offers both crushing and screening attachments. The company recently introduced the CB25 crushing bucket for excavators in the 2.5t to 4t range and its range currently tops out at the CB80 for machines up to 13t. Managing director Rod Leyland is working on a new crushing mechanism with increased efficiency, which will be faster, lighter and more powerful.

Another of the ‘founding members’ of the crushing and screening bucket brigade is Allu. The company says its buckets fulfil both crushing and screening functions and it markets versions to fit skid steers, excavators (to 40t) and wheel loaders up to 26t. Attachment specialists Exak-1 and Northertrack market a range of open-fronted rotating screening buckets for machines from 3t to 23t and 3t to 40t respectively. Both also offer crushing buckets Ð for carriers from 2.5t to 16t in Exak-1’s case and 30t to 40t from Northerntack.

It seems that whatever job builders and contractors need to undertake on site, there is now a machine or attachment capable of performing the task on whatever scale is needed. And with government-backed targets, advice and residual guarantees on equipment, there has never been a better time to consider adding recycling equipment to your fleet.