Re-cycling compactor

[Tim Lamb]

Temporarily in charge of the recycling boxes and struggling to fit 2 weeks worth of plastic containers into one box, I was reminded of an earlier thread about getting more into a standard wheelie bin.

This got me wondering about design and marketing opportunities for a domestic compactor/wrapper. Recyclable net wrap is already produced for wrapping agricultural straw bales and could be made in less wide sizes.

Now if Dyson2 could devise an affordable hand/foot powered compactor there is a one per household market:-)

[Brian Gaff]

Sounds more like a project for the guy who made the wind up radio to me.

Also what about some proper matching interlocking bins that can form the boundary fence of a property and can be filled from inside and emptied from outside without having to detach the bin itself. this would get over the huge issue of bins and bags strewn all over the footway and gardens after the truck goes by. Brian

[Dave Liquorice]

We don't have a problem but households vary on how much rubbish they produce. I do stack things inside each other as much as possible and all bottles are flattened by standing on and the caps put on at the same time to stop them reinflating.

Where does this device go, many homes don't have the space inside so it would have to go outside. Then it needs power... Oh and it'll be operated by the brain dead so double safety interlocks with tertiary backup so they can't get any part of their anatomy inside when it's compacting wrapping.

Many people can't be arse to rinse and crush bottles or cans before bunging then in the recycling so they aren't going to jump up and down on hydrualic pump for 5 mins.

It's a nice idea and may have sales in a niche market.

The gotcha will probably be the councils not wanting neatly bound bales of mixed plastics. What does happen to all this mixed plastic anyway?

[Capitol]

It was around about 50 years ago. It didn't sell enough to survive. Can't remember the name of the company which made it.

[Chris French]

We don't normally fill ourrecycling wheelie bin, though sometimes we do (probably when we have been having a bit of a clear out). I squash bottle and cans (a bit) otherwise I just lob it all in.

However, the people in the small terraced cottages next to us (no rear access) mostly use sacks, as little space for wheelie bins, so making it more compact might be worth it for that sort of situation?

Our recycling bin takes paper, cardboard, plastics, glass. It all goes to a big processing plant where it is sorted. We visited one near us, run by Amey Cespa. There is still a lot of hand sorting, but they are getting better all the time at using sensors and automated systems to identify things.

It then goes off to the various plastics manufacturing companies I guess.

[Huge]

Landfill/incineration, probably.

[Dave Liquorice]

plastic

Not likely to be landfill due to the rather hefty landfill tax. Inceration I would be suprised at and not in a CHP plant either...

[Dave Liquorice]

The only wheelie bin we have is for garden waste. Wheelie bins are just to slow for the collectors. Non-recycables are in a blue bag, a box (2'6" x 18" squareish) for glass/metal and two tough bags (12" square and 2'6" highish) for paper/card, plastics. If you blink you'll miss the blue bag collection, just gets lobbed into the back of the truck which barely stops moving. The recylables takes a bit longer but no were near as long as three wheelie bins would take.

No metal?

And mixed in the wheelie bin?

I have a feeling that might be a bad assumption. It's information that ought to be easy to find but isn't and what is there is a little coy.

[Andy Burns]

We used to have three recycling bins for paper/card, plastic/tins, glass as well as the rubbish bin, various items (butter tubs, yoghurt pots, tetra paks) were not wanted for recycling.

Now we just have one recycling bin and everything (including the previously unwanted stuff) can go in it, certainly that bin is fuller than the rubbish bin nowadays.

I assume they separate it and sell it, but who knows ...

[Lobster]

On 30 Nov 2014, Tim Lamb grunted:

I already have one. Bloody heavy thing it is too, which easily compacts the contents of one recycling bin by about 60-70% in seconds. I call it "The Lobster"...

...I keep a plastic stool next to the recycling bin, and use it to simply climb inside and jump up and down a bit.

I also works brilliantly for leaves; except the compaction ratio is about

90% then - the problem is that it's very easy to get it so full that either (a) the contents don't fall out when inverted and/or (b) the bin men take one look and decide it's been filled with mud or something, and just leave it. Not fun trying to take an overfilled bin of leaves down to the council dump and emtying over the it railings into the skip...

[Steve B]

I've thought about this and considered various assemblies, but all far too cumbersome for little old grannies to struggle with, so limited commercial viability. I have a wooden plate that I place in the top of the bin and a step ladder. With something to hold on to, I am able to easily stomp bin contents into submission. Household personnel have been trained to remove tops from plastic bottles before putting in the re-cycle bin.

Might be worthwhile putting the suggestion to them.

Being in a rural location, we tend to get a lot of flies indoors in the summer months. I have found that the best way to deal with them is to go around with a hoover nozzle and snatch them up when they settle. There is a technique to doing this and it requires practise. Ideally, I imagine a nozzle attachment could be designed to simplify this task. I did e-mail Dyson with this suggestion and they sent me a nice reply, saying that it would be an interesting task for their technical team. Whether anything appears on the market, I'll wait and see(but not hold my breath). Of course, hoovering up flies might be deemed insensitive in the eyes of some and considered politically incorrect.

[harryagain]

A lot of it is baled up an sent to places like China. Children sort it out by hand. There is a big industry in West Africa breaking down electronic stuff by hand to retrieve materials. Children again.

>

[Uncle Peter]

Damn, I misread that as "cycling compactor" and thought someone had found a way to rid our roads of cyclists.

[Huge]

... or indeed (at least in my case), cares.

[dennis]

Since a fair bit of the plastic would be endothermic it probably wouldn't generate much heat. The stuff that's collected around here goes through an automated sorting plant that's capable of separating the different plastics, glass card, paper, metals, etc. It may even separate different colours of glass. AIUI its got a manual sort for some of the worst stuff like wire and rope that can jam the works.

[Nightjar]

One of the councils around here requires the bins to be placed on the kerb, hinge to the road. The lorry drives up alongside the bins, picks them up with a side loading device, then puts them back where they were after emptying them. The operators don't even get out of the lorry.

[Nightjar]

Google threw up a number commercially available domestic waste compactors. However, following them up, most seem to give variants of 'sorry this product has been discontinued'. This makes me think that there is little demand for such a product.

...

Not in mine. General waste is collected weekly and recycling once a fortnight and I rarely produce enough waste to more than half fill either.

[Nightjar]

Sorted recycling is more valuable, but fewer people bother to recycle when they have to sort it, so Councils are finding that larger volumes of unsorted recycling are actually more profitable overall.

The Council usually sell it to a recycler, who may even do the pickups. The recycler will then put it through automatic sorting machines and sell the results.

[Tim Lamb]

Our lodger buys a *whey* based food supplement and seems to get through one pack per bin collection. Totally uncrushable by hand.

Apparently the UK is not meeting the target for waste recycling and may be fined by the EU. I am interested that councils elsewhere have a more relaxed approach to *sorting*. St. Albans DC seem unable to have the same rules for more than 12 months at a time:-(

[Huge]

On 2014-11-30, Nightjar