Mytum & Selby chooses a green (and blue) solution

• 
• 19th June 2008
• Recycling
 

With over 20 years experience within the recycling industry, Mytum & Selby Waste Recycling has grown into one of the largest waste recycling and scrap processors in the north of England. With its philosophy of providing a reliable service at competitive rates, when it came to installing a new recycling system at its Sherburn in Elmet site, quality was a vital ingredient.

With a background in scrap metal Mytum & Selby Waste Recycling has been at the Mill Cross Quarry Site in Sherburn in Elmet near Selby in North Yorkshire since 1950. Over the last 20 years, however, the site has expanded into waste processing, receiving general, construction, industrial and skip waste as well as ferrous and non-ferrous materials and is now handling more waste than scrap metal.

The site near Selby in Yorkshire had been hand sorting the waste arriving in skips manually off the ground but it became clear that this process was becoming outmoded with the dual impact of escalating gate fees at landfill sites and health and safety legislation. It was time to get the pickers off the floor and put them in a picking centre where material could be retrieved for recycling, both to open up new markets for revenue and to reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill with the associated costs that brings.

"We needed a plant that could handle all the types of waste we receive. We previously manually hand sorted, which in these times of gate fees at landfill sites and evermore health & safety legislation, is an outdated mode of sorting," says Paul Whitehead, project manager at Mytum & Selby. "The up and coming markets for recycled materials are also driving this process forward."

In its search for a high quality solution, industry connections led Mytums to Smulders Waste Technology (SWT). SWT is a division of Smulders Machine & Apparentenbouw, which designs, manufactures and supplies turnkey systems and standalone machinery for the waste separating industry. The Dutch manufacturer, which prides itself on the quality of it steel fabrication recognised the potential of stepping into the UK market and offered a solution to Mytums that would provide a maximum capacity of 50 cubic metres per hour.

Ordering the system in September, Mytum & Selby welcomed SWT onsite to start installation in early in November. Four weeks later the completed plant was handed over. "We now have a good looking, well built, structurally sound piece of equipment that the company is very pleased with," says a satisfied Paul.

Picking efficiency

Other than the feeder, all of the recycling plant designed and installed by SWT that stands proud in the company's green and blue colours at Mytum & Selby is made at Smulder's manufacturing plants in Holland. The system starts with a 10 cubic metre capacity feed hopper, into which waste that has undergone a pre-sort to extract large and unwieldly items is loaded by a grab. This particular hopper is manufactured from Hardox, which makes it tougher than the average hopper. The waste material is then fed to the high-stroke vibratory feeder, which efficiently transfers the material to the 1200 mm wide trommel feed conveyor. Impact bars at each transfer point of this waste recycling system cater for handling the heavier waste coming through.

From the feed conveyor the material enters an 8 m x 3 m diameter Trommel equipped with changeable decks. With its lifting and tumbling action, this heavy duty, chain driven unit is fitted with 40 mm diameter decks to separate the fines, which fall into a skip below.

The oversize material is then taken on a 1200 mm wide conveyor, which is inclined at 24 degrees to the picking station. This modular picking station, which can be extended if required, comprises a cabin with four chutes either side of the 1200 mm wide conveyor belt, allowing 10 pickers to work simultaneously to sort out the material to be recycled, which is dropped into the chutes leading to bins for each material below the station.

The picking belt conveyor unit has been designed to allow pickers to place their feet  in a ledge under the panelled sides of the conveyor allowing pickers to stand closer to the belt in an more ergonomic position rather than stubbing their toes against the conveyor's side panel. The 12 m long x 4 m wide picking cabin, which arrived on site as a flat pack, is equipped with heaters and lighting to provide a comfortable environment for the pickers.

Material leaving the picking station passes under an over-band magnet to remove the ferrous metals, the non-ferrous metals are hand sorted and collected inside the picking station. The remaining waste is finally dropped into a skip for removal to landfill.

SEW motor gearboxes are used on all of the conveyors and Bridges Electrical Engineers supplied the control system, which uses PLCs with built-in safety features. When the system is switched on it starts on automatic sequence: first with the magnet, then the picking belt, the conveyor, the trommel, the feed conveyor and the vibratory feeder. It shuts down however in the opposite direction.

"In our view this is the practical way to do it; it's all timed out to allow the remaining waste to run through the system and off the picking line into the skip. So there's never any product left on shut down, so the belt is always clear," says Paul. The plant currently runs for around 8 to 10 hours a day powered by an 86 kW generator.

Reducing waste sent to landfill

Under its license, the new plant will be able to process up to 100,000 tonnes of waste a year and reduce the amount of material sent to landfill.

"All waste has to be processed before going to landfill to ensure waste is being disposed off at the right cost and to adhere to new legislation, meaning all waste must be pre-treated before being sent to landfill. The plant allows us to reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill, gives us a safer working environment and offers the potential for serving recycling markets," says Paul. "We are reducing what we send to landfill by about 40% at the moment. As we develop the system it will increase. We intend to put the minimum amount into landfill."

He continues: "Payback on our investment within 12 to 18 month is not unreasonable, especially with the landfill tax increase in April. For every tonne of waste we save from landfill, that's potentially a saving and we will get paid for that recycled material too."

The materials being recycled by Mytums include timber, metal, cardboard, plastics. The company and timber using a Vermeer 6000 HJ shredder for conversion into woodchips for millboard manufacture or for composting in conjunction with green waste or can use it for fuel in a power station when pelletised. Metals go to     fragging plants, while plastics and cardboard are baled and sold as a reusable material.

"For the recycling of waste to be effective, markets need to be found for the recycled material. We have emerging markets and we can give them exactly what they want," says Paul. "Our customers will come here to inspect the material, which maintains a good relationship."

Paul concludes: "The new recycling plant has given us the potential to be not so reliant on landfill; a safer working environment and opened up new markets for reclaimed material. Cost was on a par with most equivalent plant and what we've got for our money is a well built, structurally sound piece of equipment that the company is very pleased with."

Who are Mytum and Selby?

Mytum & Selby is very much looking towards the future through new technology. "We are looking at gassification plants and compositing systems - embracing all of the modern techniques to generate revenue and reduce waste," says Paul Whitehead. "Our customers want to see us moving forward and we have the foresight, enthusiasm and drive to move with the times. If you don't, you won't get the returns."  To further help keep things moving along Mytums is developing relationships with local authorities and an exchange of knowledge with academia.

"We sponsor a post graduate from Hull University who works on site. She is researching composting and the complexities of various forms of waste to energy. Working on site takes her out of the laboratory and into a true working environment while we benefit from the University's technical knowledge.

The company owns four strategic sites that cover the whole of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Humberside areas, the smallest being 11 acres all with serious waste treatment planning on them and all within city boundaries, each capable of handling thousands of tonnes per year - two sites with road and rail connections. One with a road rail and water connection, for which Mytums is seeking partners who wish to develop a waste to energy/fuel on the backend with a recycling system on the front end. Mytums is looking to develop a relationship with anyone possessing the foresight to recognise the need for big operations capable of handling all types of waste material.

Smulders Waste Technology targets the quality sector

Smulders Waste Technology is also providing a full waste recycling system for DTS Environmental in Barnsley, which goes live shortly. This project will have a fines recovery system, which will include air separation.

With a history of over 40 years, Smulders places itself in the quality end of the market place, according to Steve Hill who represents SWT here in the UK.

Like many engineering companies SWT is attracted to growing market for waste recycling, a market Steve believes to be changing as more companies are get involved.

"More companies are looking at the process of waste recycling now but the market has been initially driven by mobile equipment to prove the benefits of waste recycling," says Steve. "However as the sector is beginning to mature it is moving towards static equipment, which requires a wiser investment that looks at the long term."

SWT provides a range of solutions comprising feeders, trommel screens, vibrating screens, static and mobile ppicking stations, air-based separations, magnets, waste separators and conveyors. The company is also UK agent for Spalack, the German manufacturer of conveying and separation technology.