www.ategrus.org 'The History of Private Sector Waste Disposal in the United Kingdom from the late 1970's to the mid 1990's' By Tim Byrne MCIWM Chartered Waste Manager. ISWA International Waste Manager Associate Member of ATEGRUS Commercial and Industrial Waste Collection and Mobile Compaction Vehicles The development of mobile compaction vehicles for the collection of commercial and industrial waste goes back to the 1970’s. In this period, the economy was buoyant and large quantities of waste needed collecting from industry and commerce. In this era, many smaller waste management companies existed and over the coming decades, they were aquired, by the national waste management Plc’s. In this era there were two national waste management companies in existence; Biffa, and Redland Purle. There were other regional waste management businesses such as Cleansing Service Group, Grundon, Hales Containers and Haul Waste as well www.ategrus.org as smaller waste management businesses such as Cartaways, Clugston Reclamation and Waste Plan in the West Midlands; Mix Concrete and Waste Disposal, had depots in Great Billing, Northampton its Head Office as well as in Coventry, Swindon and Bristol in the South East and the South West; Sam Hemmings with depots in Bristol, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire in the South, and Haul Waste which had depots across the South West e.g. Taunton, Bristol, Plymouth and Liskeard. Biffa and Commercial Waste Collection using Paladin and wheeled containers Biffa started using their first Paladin collection vehicles in the late 1970s when they purchased some Norba Hippo intermittent rear loaders with pencil bin hoist from Norba Ltd mounted onto Seddon Atkinson S34 4x2 chassis. In the early 1980s, they purchased a wide variety of trade waste collection vehicles from Dennis Eagle of Warwick. These had a variety of chassis and body sizes. In 1985, the company purchased Dennis Delta two axle chassis with Phoenix (1) Series bodies of 15 cubic metre capacity complete with a Zoeller high level trade lift. Biffa was a forward thinking company so all of the Paladin containers purchased for its commercial clients had a comb bar fitted to them, so that they could be lifted by the comb bar on the Zoeller trade lift. This was opposed to the traditional pencil bin lift or later the girdle clamp option which was available for emptying Paladin containers. The Zoeller high level trade lift could also empty wheeled bins from 120 - 360 litres and four wheeled containers of 660 and 1100 litre capacities. The comb bar fitted on the Paladin bins helped Biffa to streamline its collection fleet, so that www.ategrus.org the vehicles’ lifting equipment could be multifaceted and empty a wide range of trade waste containers. In 1987 and 1988 Biffa acquired more Phoenix (1) Series bodies from Dennis Eagle with the Zoeller high level trade lift fitted to them. These were of 18, 20, 23 and 28 cubic metres capacity mounted onto either Leyland Freighter 6x2 chassis of 24 tonnes gross vehicle weight with a mid lift axle or Scania 2 Series 6x4 or 8x4 chassis. Biffa also acquired a Scania 2 Series 6x4 chassis with Lacre PDE ‘Vulture’ bodywork of 22 cubic metres capacity for their contract at Gatwick Airport, a contract which Biffa still operates to this day. This, too, has a Zoeller high level trade lift. In 1993, Biffa replaced some of its commercial waste collection fleet. The company purchased a mixture of Scania P93 two, three and four axle chassis and Dennis Eagle mounted their Phoenix (1) 15, 18, 20, 23 and 28 cubic metre bodies to them. Biffa moved away from using the Zoeller high level trade lift and instead purchased Dennis Eagle’s Beta bar lift which was capable of emptying containers from 120 – 1280 litres capacity. Biffa also purchased some Scania P93 6x4 chassis complete with 22 cubic metre Jack Allen Colectomatic 4100 Series with Eurohoist one and two bin lift as well as some Norba RL35/22 bodies of 22 cubic metre capacity complete with the L422 bin lift at the time. Biffa also purchased some Norba RL35/25 25 cubic metre capacity bodies with the L422 bin lift which were mounted onto a Scania P93 8X4 chassis for their municipal collection contract at Didcot in the period of 1993 and 1994. The lifting equipment on the Jack Allen and Norba bodies could lift containers from 120 – 1280 litres capacities. Cleanaway and the use of Paladin and wheeled containers Cleanaway was formed in 1981 through the acquisition of Redland Purle by GKN Brambles from Australia. Cleanaway had its UK Head Office at the former Redland Purle Head Office at Rayleigh until a new purpose built Head Office opened in Brentwood in 1986. The company consolidated the operations of Redland Purle into Cleanaway and all of the Redland Purle vehicles were repainted into the ‘Cleanaway’ blue livery. The first Paladin waste collection service started in Cosham in the early 1980’s. Cleanaway purchased a second hand Dodge 500 Series 4x2 chassis complete with www.ategrus.org Jack Allen Colectomatic Mark 3 equipment and Paladin pencil bin lift. The vehicle was only used a few hours each day, while Cleanaway’s sales team built up the Paladin commercial waste collection service, selling the service to commercial businesses and light industry. Eventually, the service became very profitable and Cleanaway rolled out the Paladin service to all its commercial waste collection depots across the UK. New Paladin vehicles were purchased in the early 1980’s and were mounted to Leyland Freighter two axle chassis as well as Volvo F6 two axle chassis and Volvo F7 three axle chassis. The first new Paladin collection bodywork was supplied by David Mackrill Engineering from Bury St Edmunds. This equipment had a body capacity of 22 cubic metres and was equipped with a pencil bin lift for emptying 880 litre Paladin containers. Waste could also be loaded manually into the hopper of the collection vehicle, if the collection was from a shop or an office and the waste was placed into plastic sacks. The first one purchased replaced the Dodge 500 Series 4x2 Jack Allen Colectomatic Mark 3 operated at the Cosham depot. Norba Ltd also supplied the Norba Rhino, Norba ‘Ki12’ and Norba ‘R’ Series complete with pencil bin lift for paladin collection mounted on the above chassis for ‘Cleanaway’. In the late 1980’s and 1990s, more trade waste collection vehicles were purchased. These were mounted onto Seddon Atkinson 201 Series with crew cab in 4x2 configuration as well as Volvo FL7 and Mercedes SK 6x4 chassis. These had bodywork fitted by Jack Allen (Motor Bodies) Ltd who supplied their Colectomatic www.ategrus.org 4100 bodywork in 16 and 22 cubic metre capacities. These collection vehicles were fitted with their Eurohoist one and two series lift which consisted of a girdle clamp to lift Paladin containers as well as a comb lift to empty 120, 360, 660 and 1280 four wheeled containers which Cleanaway had started to introduce for use by its commercial and industrial clients in this era. Skip Eaters Skip Eaters were used to collect waste in larger volumes from industry and commerce. The first Skip Eater purchased by the private sector was a Jack Allen Big Bite of 25 yards (22 cubic metres) capacity. It was mounted on a Dodge 500 Series three axle chassis and operated by Waste Plan, a West Midlands waste disposal contractor which had depots in Birmingham, Brownhills and Kingswinford. After the success of the first Jack Allen Big Bite, Waste Plan purchased two more. The second one was identical to the first e.g. it was mounted onto a Dodge 500 Series 6x4 chassis; the third was a Jack Allen Big Bite body of 25 yards (22 cubic metres) but mounted onto a Leyland Bison (2) 6x4 chassis. All three Big Bites had the early roll up type arms which were mounted onto the sides of the roof canopy. Jack Allen designed these and they could lift five tonnes. Waste Plan were later consolidated into the Leigh Environmental business. Other contractors followed suit: in the North West the first Skip Eater was sold to E&A Metals of Wigan. This was a Big Bite of 25 cubic yards – 22 cubic metres www.ategrus.org capacity with roll up arms but mounted onto a second hand 1970 AEC Mammoth Major 6x4 chassis. Hargreaves Clearwaste, a member of the Coalite Group, also purchased their first Skip Eater from Jack Allen. This was a Big Bite with roll up type arms of 25 cubic yards – 22 cubic metres capacity and was mounted onto a Foden S39 6x4 chassis. This truck operated from their Leeds depot. Jack Allen eventually became the market leader in supplying Big Bite rear end loaders up until the late 1990’s. In its era, the company supplied them to all of the national waste management Plc’s such as Browning Ferries Industries (BFI), Biffa, Redland Purle, Cleanaway, Shanks and Mc Ewan etc. The 25 cubic yard Big Bite body was mounted onto a wide variety of 6x4 chassis such as the AEC Mammoth Major, Dodge 500 Series, Foden S39, Seddon Atkinson S34, Seddon Atkinson 300 Series, Leyland Bison (2), Volvo F86, Volvo F7 etc. In the mid 1980’s, Jack Allen also launched a 32 cubic yard body of 27 cubic metres capacity. Most Skip Eater operators switched to operating these because their 6x4 Big Bites were only plated at 24 tonnes. This was so that they could carry more weight, up to 30 tonnes. In the early 1990s, gross weights were increased to 32 tonnes.