Williams & Williams invest in a BlueMAC Dry Recyclables MRF
Williams & Williams who are based in the Llyn Peninsula in North West Wales have recently installed the latest Dry Recycling MRF which has been designed and built by BlueMAC and supplied by Blue Machinery Central.
The company commenced trading in 1920 selling animal feed and coal to the local community by the current managing director Meurig Jones’s great uncle. Since then Meurig who purchased the company in 1987, has driven the business from a single skip truck and six skips to the multi-faceted recycling company that it is today with the company being in the enviable position of being one of the only recycling companies in the area.
With the business now employing 18 personnel and covering the surrounding areas, steady rational growth has seen the company services expand to cover skip hire, the supply of sand and gravel and other recycled materials, road sweeper hire, septic tank emptying, drain jetting and cleaning and waste processing, with their current recycling operations achieving an overall 85% recyclables recovery rate.
“The decision to purchase a new MRF as part of a £ ½ million investment was taken to make the business more efficient, safer and more profitable. We did look at other potential suppliers as well as BlueMAC but the final design and quality of build went in BlueMAC’s favour. With their vast experience and their design and engineering capabilities it gave us a lot of confidence in making the investment”, commented MD -Meurig Jones.
The plant
Configured by a team of innovative BlueMAC engineers the new Dry Recyclables MRF was designed to fit into a tight footprint within an existing structure and provides a compact efficient materials flow from the incoming household waste stream to the final separated and recyclable products. Easy to access the plant features full walkways and is fully guarded throughout.
Operated by a team of 3, waste material is fed into a hopper which conveys the material up an inclined conveyor to a ballistic separator. This splits the material 3 ways; -40mm fines, 2D material (flats-predominantly paper and cardboard) and 3D material (rounds-predominantly plastic bottles, trays, ferrous and non-ferrous cans). The 2D material is then fed up a line with one picking bay, where paper is separated from cardboard manually. Any 3D material is fed up a line where it goes through a manual quality control pick. A magnet then removes ferrous material which is then chuted into a baler with an eddy current separator removing non-ferrous material which again is also chuted into a specific baler.
The 2D/3D separation is done to boost performance in the next phase of equipment, which is the advanced core of the system. Here material flows onto a Titech dual-split optical sorter which rejects any polyethylene terephthalate (PET); the material is then recirculated and fed into the Titech again for a second hit with any high-density polyethylene (HDPE) separated and ejected. Any residual material with low value is also rejected.
“Overall we are very pleased with the plant, in particular Ben McQuaid, Oliver McShane and Paul McCann of Blue who worked very closely with us in designing a high quality engineered plant that would fit into our existing building, quite simply ‘it does what it says on the tin’. We also have the added confidence of a full spares and 24/7 service package with Blue Machinery Central”, commented Meurig.
Partially powered by 192 solar panels that generate 48kW these panels provide 50-75% of the electrical requirement for the new plant at Williams & Williams which has been designed to achieve a throughput of 8tph. Providing a 100% recyclable solution from their current incoming household waste stream this will provide a future proof capacity for the company through a more efficient process with additional environmental benefits.
Company ethos
Meurig Jones, commented, “It has always been the company’s aim to offer a high quality service at a competitive rate through the efficient use of recycling. This investment in the new BlueMAC Dry Recyclables Plant will take the company one step further towards this goal. The local community is very important to the company and I would like to raise the profile of recycling in Gwynedd. We already arrange evening visits to the yard by local groups and we foresee a strong role in targeting local schools by offering site visits to emphasize and educate the importance of recycling.”