St Helier Municipal Services in Jersey is increasing recycling capacity and throughput for commercial and residential waste by upgrading its baling operation with a new horizontal baler and feed conveyor from Middleton Engineering.
This will increase flexibility to handle a wider range of waste streams and enable the team to produce highly compact mill size bales to drive transportation efficiencies.
Responsible for the collection and processing of card and packaging waste from 70% of the parish of St Helier's commercial properties, together with residential recycling which accounts for one third of the population, the investment is a natural progression to improve the functioning of the St Helier Parish recycling operation.
Jersey has a zero landfill policy so any waste that is not recycled is incinerated at the Island's Energy from Waste (EfW) plant. The goal is to remove as much recyclable material as possible and these commodities are then baled and shipped off island for processing in France, the closest destination.
Transportation is the biggest expense and, in addition to improved throughput, a key requirement is to produce high quality compact bales, to ensure each container carries a maximum load, and at the same time satisfy St Helier's French recycling partner and the reprocessing mills.
The new solution is a Middleton ME80 closed-end, semi-automatic, horizontal baler with a bespoke feed conveyor. Where previously the team was only able to produce one bale per hour using a manually operated vertical baler, they are now achieving three in the same time and clearing the commodity as it comes in.
Piers Tharme, Facilities & Resources Manager, explains: "We needed a solution that would deliver instant improvements but one that could also be enhanced as requirements grow. With many suppliers the attitude seems to be very much you get what is supplied or you need to buy the next model up. Middletons were extremely helpful from the off, nothing was too difficult and we quickly got a sense that we could work well together."
Selecting Middletons was partly due to a fortuitous visit to municipal colleagues in Alderney on another matter. "We noticed that they were also using a Middleton baling press and when asked they had nothing but praise. Guernsey also uses a Middleton's solution and knowing that this relationship already existed with the Islands really helped."
"The experience has been extremely good from the first contact and initial site visit, through installation, commissioning and training. Middletons gave us a timescale and stuck to it. Essentially we were offline for just one day and baling in the afternoon. When it works like that it gives you massive confidence."
Previously the St Helier team was unable to produce stable bales of paper and card and consequently weren't achieving the best prices for these commodities. Now the team is able to deal with everything, producing a consistently well shaped and stable product, and because they can now manage other commodities all with the same machine, there are financial benefits to be had - rather than passing these on.
Piers Tharme concluded: "The beauty is, now that we are able to increase our processing ability and have confidence in the solution, we can focus on the business of promoting additional kerbside recycling and further support the Island's recycling ambition."
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