05/05/2001

ET2 Delivers £10,000 Saving On Waste

During the first six months of operation, a revolution™ waste processor from ET2 Limited has already reduced the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel’s waste bill by £10,000. This saving has been achieved through the high compaction capabilities of the system, allowing the hotel to transport greater quantities of waste using fewer vehicles.

The 802-bed hotel forms part of the UK’s largest hotel and conference centre at the NEC Birmingham. Consequently, this busy hotel is tasked with managing waste from its guests, visitors from the NEC’s many conference halls, as well as delegates from in-house meetings and conferences. With governmental pressure moving towards greater recycling of waste, the hotel’s engineer, Paul Burrows, needed to find a solution that would increase the amount of waste being recycled and improve the content of the waste being taken to landfill in line with government legislation relating to liquids.

“Sorting the waste was our first priority. Before the introduction of the revolution™, only glass was separated out, with everything else being fed to an old compactor that generally produced waste loads of around five tonnes, although this could be as low as two or three tonnes dependent on material memory spring-back, “ explained Paul Burrows.

The first task was to establish a sorting process that enabled glass, paper, cardboard, and drinks cans to be removed for recycling. The remaining waste is then stored in wheelie-bins ready for processing by the revolution™. The system compacts the waste by pulling it through a screw mechanism where a cutter plate shreds it, destroying memory spring-back and allowing the liquid content to be drained to a holding tank.

The government’s Landfill Directive has brought liquid disposal at landfill site under the spotlight. It states that liquids are to be phased out of existing non-hazardous sites and inert sites between July 2002 - 2007 and have been banned from new sites since July 2001. Liquid waste is described as: any waste (load) containing free draining liquid substance in excess of 250 litres or 10 per cent by volume, whichever represents the lesser amount.

With the greater compaction and liquid extraction capabilities of the revolution™, the hotel’s waste loads could weigh up to 15 tonnes, far exceeding expectations. (For safety reasons, loads are restricted to 12 tonnes). Waste collection has been more than halved resulting in a saving of around £10,000 in transportation and landfill costs.

“The objective was to increase the amount of waste that was being recycled, but we have had the additional advantage of cutting our waste removal overhead by thousands of pounds a year and have improved the way in which we handle waste generally,” said Paul Burrows.

The revolution™ can achieve compaction ratios as high at 60:1, dependent on material, with a typical ratio of 15:1 on mixed waste streams.