Why choose waste compaction?

00;00;01;16 - 00;00;34;06

Speaker 1

Good morning and welcome to that. We titled which is a compact mind marked in full on the business here at VLT in the UK. That's what I'm doing when I'm not doing this. And today I'm going to be talking to an old friend of mine, Daniel Parsons, managing director of Capital Contractors and Bayliss compaction is a slightly different topic to the ones we've gone through previously, but one that I hope you are going to find interesting, useful and informative.

 

00;00;36;04 - 00;01;02;13

Speaker 1

Now, many of you may not even know what compaction is, and you might have questions about what types of waste compacted or is your business suitable and should you be considering compaction? Well, Daniel is going to help us and he's going to be shedding some light on the topic with me over the next time. I'd like you to introduce yourself if you can talk a little bit about the company you work for now.

 

00;01;02;28 - 00;01;49;26

Speaker 2

Firstly, thank you for inviting me today. It's about waste compaction in Ireland. My name is Daniel Parsons. I'm managing director of Capital Contractors and I've been in the waste industry myself for over 20 years where I've met Martin and his colleagues before. The last eight years I ended up a team of nearly 80 people across the UK from service engineers on the road to a design team and manufacturing plant in Barnsley, just north of Sheffield that produces waste, compaction equipment and bales for the commercial waste industry in the UK.

 

00;01;50;15 - 00;02;09;13

Speaker 2

We won the lead. I'm a bit of a dying trend in the UK, but we are bucking the trend and supplying the vast majority of what goes out. Although also very proud and happy to answer your questions today.

 

00;02;09;21 - 00;03;11;08

Speaker 1

It's a great time and I'm not going to make any comment about Yorkshire Company being the best sort of company, but it is probably, although honestly not quite my everything in the world, just trying to reduce the audience by getting to people. What Yorkshire doesn't let us learn about the people what to be, what compassion actually is and what types of compassion are available to them.

 

00;03;12;13 - 00;03;40;18

Speaker 1

Is it is there much more to it?

 

00;03;40;25 - 00;04;17;17

Speaker 2

The inclines open to in terms of suggestion. Jan is about cutting their labour costs, especially in today's climate, where, you know, cheap labour isn't available anymore and people are very easily switched on to saving fossils. And the best way of doing that is to look at, you know, what's going out the back door, such in terms of waste and their recyclable materials and, you know, within their own homes.

 

00;04;17;17 - 00;04;48;11

Speaker 2

And that's what it's doing. So generally speaking, most people would have static waste impacted by both machines to the floor. It stays the waste into a container from the earlier again that can be loaded by hand wheelie bin, a grab truck, you know, food establishments that got done last inside the building will go outside the dirty labs into the compactor and generate the dry materials because obviously, the container from the old is there.

 

00;04;49;08 - 00;05;21;04

Speaker 2

But you know, someone like a shopping centre or clinical waste might move into portable compactors where they keep all the liquids, small amounts of liquids within the spend. Now, obviously not get into trouble with that going down the road. So surveillance, you know, vertical compilers and new processes in what it does, but it's obviously beneficial to sort of small to medium customers squashing commodities in terms of paper, cardboard, tin cans, plastic bottle wheels, etc..

 

00;05;22;00 - 00;05;41;16

Speaker 2

It pales into the cube, bigger the cube, the better it is and the more dense the bio is. You know, it's certainly moved on from, you know, sort of what it used to be. There has to be a certain size, and there has to be a set of weight ratios. And when you put it on to a standard trailer, you want maximum weight gain on that stand right now.

 

00;05;41;16 - 00;06;06;28

Speaker 2

So it certainly has changed. It certainly has evolved. And then we go into semi-automatic taking some of the labour out of 75% of the labour out compared to vertical baling machines that starts and stops on it. And then we go into 30 automatic ideals for backhaul in distribution centres, recyclers like yourself and yes, automatic barriers all day long.

 

00;06;07;07 - 00;06;40;06

Speaker 2

But we've seen, you know, a significant number of requests come from commercials because of e-commerce. You know, it's, you know, a lot it now getting back to one central location or multiple sites across the UK and three automatics, you know, certainly paving the way in terms of cost reduction, not the cheapest of machines outlay initially, but you know, in some cases paying back within the first 12 months of having an on site, you know, very exciting times ahead.

 

00;06;42;01 - 00;06;58;24

Speaker 1

As an impressive start. I wasn't expecting to hear that you could, you know, I guess with the right materials and the right solution. Yes, you'll get that payback time. So. That's right. Well, our compaction ratios are out there now and you know, they much improved over the years. Or is it pretty much what it is?

 

00;06;59;15 - 00;07;20;14

Speaker 2

Well you know, it depends on the material that that got that was ended with you can go from anything from 3 to 1 4 to 1. And black waste and then moving up to 10 to 1, depending on the sort of the level of material that's being thrown into say about Claudette. But you never look at polystyrene 50 to 1.

 

00;07;20;20 - 00;07;44;15

Speaker 2

You know, it depends on the material that's coming through. You know, it's you know, that's what's the ability to do a site audit especially or, you know, anything really from small, medium and large producers, you know, looking at the opportunities there because, you know, compact in a baling equipment and start from a few thousand pounds and go out to half a billion pounds.

 

00;07;44;15 - 00;08;10;09

Speaker 2

So there's always a price bracket for everybody. There is a compaction ratio for everybody as well. Sometimes it's just nice, cheap, easy, tidy up side, get it into a bale, get it into a compactor another time. This is about more thought provoking. How can you get the material to maximise the revenue later on down the line? And you never see this a lot more than we'll see.

 

00;08;10;09 - 00;08;40;01

Speaker 2

That material has got a value, you know, how to be and to get the best out of it, you know, and less movements. Less truck movements. Yeah, it's yeah, there is a system generally for everybody. It's not for everybody entirely. But you know, I think we've proved over the years working in partnership with the only good, solid, robust site where they're establishing what waste materials are there, what can be done with it.

 

00;08;41;03 - 00;09;08;04

Speaker 1

So to summarise, we say that the benefits are that you reduce the volume, which means you can then fit more waste, if you like, into a fixed volume that helps you reduce the number of movements. It optimises the weight of a if it bales onto a trailer, it allows you to mention the labour element there.

 

00;09;08;04 - 00;09;21;23

Speaker 1

So there's a labour saving and also the one I like and I haven't really thought about just how tidier a site looks with the compaction uniform. There is the esthetics there, isn't there? And I wonder if there's any more benefits there.

 

00;09;22;26 - 00;09;43;28

Speaker 2

Yeah, well, you know, you go into a site and let's take everything away from the older point of view. But sometimes, you know, lots of multiple things around the site. You know, the site has become, you know, that maybe hasn't really sort of, you know, over the years, you know, and you kind of establish, you know, that it didn't move the bow.

 

00;09;43;28 - 00;10;03;26

Speaker 2

There's a ton of motion there you know, and a lot of our clients which we share, we sell, you know, they've got these customers little selves, you know, they turn out they want to see a site that's clean and tidy. Yes, they would like to see material being bales. So they want to see bins. You talked about the customer?

 

00;10;03;26 - 00;10;22;15

Speaker 2

Probably not. You know, there's a safety element. There's a material supply. And about, you know, if you are next door to an airport, you'd have things issue. But, you know, generally, why should it be, you know, why should it just be someone that's next to an airport? It should be everybody, you know, related to a site nobody wants.

 

00;10;22;15 - 00;10;51;16

Speaker 2

Little copper. No, exactly. So, you know, be able to contain that waste into a compactor. You know, we see this with hospitals. Generally, hospitals are open to the public, you know, and they're looking for ways to secure that waste, which, you know, it can be genuine waste. There can be clinical aspects to it, bounce a container into a compact and that's lockable P code and not be able to access it through the cage with top hats on.

 

00;10;51;25 - 00;11;15;21

Speaker 2

You know, this comes from Biba Bespoke Designs, you know, and I think we find ourselves in a unique position in UK whereby we can, that we can design, we can manufacture, we have got UK supply as know key components and you know the bounds of supply, that bit of kit. And it's very rarely do we supply, you know, the same machine day in, day out.

 

00;11;15;24 - 00;11;39;29

Speaker 2

Yes. You know, there are standards of care out there, of course. But we find it a lot more now that customers are being very kind of demanding and quite rightly so. You know, they want the best out of the compaction. They want the best safety features. They want an image, you know, you know, now we know how to get branding on compaction units.

 

00;11;41;01 - 00;11;53;20

Speaker 2

You know, it's all about sort of making that awareness, making that statement. What if you got clean, tidy, you know, invested in the site? They want to see a tidy waste area. So yeah, it helps massively.

 

00;11;53;22 - 00;12;17;20

Speaker 1

Oh, that's great. We've talked about a few of the materials, you know, polystyrene, you've mentioned paper, you mentioned card, general waste. I'm imagining plastics. Is there anything that you've told me we can pack? You're going to surprise me a little bit. A little bit shocked to maybe, you know, educate me on what exactly can you compact.

 

00;12;18;08 - 00;12;50;22

Speaker 2

Well, you know, I do start to think of something that wouldn't you know, compact or bale. You know, if you think of scrap metal that is such they are bailing essentially in cars. Now. But to be wrong, we're not into that market. But if you think about something on that significant level, generally speaking, I am struggling to think of something that couldn't be compacted, although, you know, we're bailing tires for the entire industry, you know, significant, you know, mattresses.

 

00;12;51;00 - 00;13;22;03

Speaker 2

We just went into a contract with the owner whereby we were looking at compaction and baling and we stumbled across a unique solution whereby you could extract the oil from a food, oil from packaging. So it was almost like a two win situation. There is no need to go in with a compaction and baling opportunity. But through our partners and expertise, we came across a very lucrative oil extraction and paper.

 

00;13;22;03 - 00;13;38;24

Speaker 2

So it's kind of a win-win really, you know, bound to get the expertise from Waste Management Company and then obviously the equipment side of things and yeah, there are some very quick wins and there's some, you know, sort of thought provoking ideas and solutions out there.

 

00;13;39;18 - 00;14;12;07

Speaker 1

I absolutely love this idea of compaction, not just being a process, but actually a treatment process, a recovery process. And you're absolutely right. You know, you know, absolute applause and congratulations to the team involved in it working on that solution for the customer. You know, it's a I guess it's an example of ecological transformation in a way. You know, it's taking what would have been happening anyway, but finding an extra reason to do an environmental benefit for it.

 

00;14;12;07 - 00;14;37;02

Speaker 1

And I think that's a great example there. And I'm really, really pleased that we've done that. I guess, you know, you use the word lucrative. Yeah. There's a financial return that is a benefit that I'm sure you can use to offset the cost of the material. But to those people who are listening and are beginning to think, well, okay, we've got a lot of waste material and it sounds like you can compact it.

 

00;14;37;14 - 00;14;45;18

Speaker 1

How does the cost modelling work for a compaction unit? Can you give us a minute or so on that just so people have it in their minds, how to think about this?

 

00;14;46;06 - 00;15;13;24

Speaker 2

And as I mentioned earlier, prices can range from a couple of thousand pounds worth investment up to half a million pounds. And no matter what the budget is, from a customer's perspective, a couple of out £2 is just as much as half a million pounds. So what we tend to find the best approach is working with Veolia in terms of soil audits, establishing what the waste volumes have been over the last 1236 months.

 

00;15;14;09 - 00;15;39;15

Speaker 2

I've seen some clients have suffered during the pandemic. The volumes have decreased, some have increased. And then trying to work out what the volumes are going to be like for the next three, five, seven years, because any sort of investment from a customer perspective, from an accounting point of view, they want to depreciate the equipment, you know, whether they want to buy the equipment with extended service and warranty from them or if they want to lease rent.

 

00;15;40;04 - 00;16;12;14

Speaker 2

You know, there's a number of financial options out there which we know ourselves and the only way to present to the customer is about establishing what's right or wrong. It's not for everybody, you know. It may well be that the compaction or baling isn't financially viable, but it may well be that it's a cost benefit in terms of labour. So we are probably bucking the trend to save lots of money in terms of transport and tonnage now.

 

00;16;12;14 - 00;16;37;07

Speaker 2

So it may be a combination of things. It's about clean size, the tightening cycle is about time motion, you know, in terms of the labour, how we get material moved for writing today and then not just from a transport afterwards, it's about around the distribution centre or the factory. It's about how they sort of change that waste and waste to maybe a commodity.

 

00;16;37;08 - 00;17;11;06

Speaker 2

You know, they could pull the string now they could you there, as you well know, this is a product that has probably got a revenue to it. And if you can, you can get enough of the outs and then manipulate the way it's being collected. Yeah, there's certainly gains to be made everywhere. So yeah. So in terms of the financial point of view, there are budgets for everybody and then there's options in terms of lunches that you spend.

 

00;17;11;06 - 00;17;39;04

Speaker 1

And Daniel, you give us quite a lot there to take in and I'm just going to try and summarise it. And I've got one more question for you then. I think I've got one more question. It could be three. Let's see how I get these summarised in my own head, but effectively compact nation. Yes, you've got the financial incentive to do it in terms of it can help you achieve more revenue, things like that.

 

00;17;39;15 - 00;18;07;08

Speaker 1

But what I heard there an awful lot more was the softer benefits and probably more important benefits really in the longer term. Would you and this is my final question. Is compassion sustainable? Is it what we need to be doing and what we need to be looking at? And should people I think you use the phrase, you know, pull the cord and get on with compassion, not just for financial reasons, but for ecological transformation, for sustainable reasons.

 

00;18;08;17 - 00;18;47;09

Speaker 2

Now, like I said, it's not for everybody, but for the vast majority. There are the options out there from bailing in small bales to tie in. And so we are, you know, pollution control on site. No gardens contain waste in a sealed unit. You know, there's options for everybody. And, you know, I'd strongly advise anybody. So, you know medium to large producers of waste to look at options or compacting waste leave it for a static or portable and then looking at ways to maximise the revenue of that commodities by dialling in.

 

00;18;47;23 - 00;19;19;10

Speaker 2

So it's not for everybody that we are finding, you know, in this current climate coming out of a pandemic, looking at ways to improve the bottom line, generally speaking, yes, compactors and balance fit, as you know, as the bolt on to a dust cart service or roll on service that Veolia does day in, day out. Yeah, it's a good combination.

 

00;19;19;10 - 00;19;44;27

Speaker 1

Thank you, Daniel. And thanks for some great answers there. And opening my eyes certainly to what I thought compaction wasn't possible to do. Actually we have to leave it there in terms of our time together. But before I do that, I just like to make you aware of our next linkedIn live session, which will be Thursday, the 7th of July at 10 a.m..

 

00;19;45;10 - 00;20;13;10

Speaker 1

And I'm going to be speaking to Andrew Brown from the Veolia Environmental Trust. If you don't know what the Veolia Environmental Trust is, I'm not going to spoil it. Now, I recommend you join us on Thursday the seventh, and I will tell you all about them along with Andrew Brown. Thank you very much, everybody, and goodbye.