A company with a 30 year track record in manufacturing materials recycling products has launched a revolutionary device which sorts and bales cans during kerbside collections.
The on-vehicle machinery is produced by Advanced Recycling Solutions (ARS), which currently manufactures a range of static shredders, sorters, balers and crushers.
The new product, called KerbCan, is designed to save manpower and vehicle mileage by producing palletised, ready to smelt, bales after each kerbside collection shift.
The ARS system increases the capacity of each collection vehicle four-fold, with a consequent reduction in the need to return to base and be emptied. In addition, it removes the need to store and handle loose cans at a depot.
Instead, cans from domestic kerbside collections or commercial premises are emptied into a hopper at the rear of the vehicle.
From there they are conveyor fed with non-metals automatically collected in an easily removable bin. The remaining cans are separated into ferrous and non-ferrous metals and cleaned by eddy current before each type is crushed into 20kg steel and 7kg aluminum bales and placed in the integrated pallet store.
Brian Hattam, ARS' Managing Director said: "We believe this system is nothing short of a revolution in kerbside can collection. The handling, storage and processing of cans is extremely labour intensive. This automates virtually all of that process, producing valuable, saleable bales at the end of every shift."
One person can operate the vehicle where collection points are some distance apart, or by up to three people where the points are closer together and the flow of cans is more rapid.
Waste energy produced by the vehicle when it is idling powers the system and it has been assembled from ARS' range of modular recycling products incorporating design features such as replaceable wear plates.
For more information visit ARS visit www.ars-chs.co.uk, or call 01209 611898.