Just 15 minutes off the M1 near Derby, lies a 50-acre hub of recycling on Crompton Road in Ilkeston. The variety of companies here can between them recycle just about anything. At the centre of this hub is Stanton Recycling’s 5-acre site, which processes up to 60,000 tonnes of waste a year.
Starting out 35 years ago as a skip hire business, the family owned company is today a fully focused waste transfer and treatment plant. The waste is predominantly municipal, from Stanton’s domestic and small commercial waste contracts with local authorities. The volume of waste imported? on to the site has grown year-on-year, leading Stanton to develop its infrastructure from a single small building to process it, to three buildings.
Mick Clifton, Operations Manager at Stanton Recycling said: “People notice when you do something good and that’s how our waste import has increased. Waste is an industry that will never go away and we are getting busier year-on-year with more business from our existing contracts. We have to look after them and provide the service they want.”
This, of course, places greater demand on its materials handling machines. “Having machinery running all of the time is the best thing we can wish for,” says Clifton.
Fulfilling this wish is Stanton’s fleet of materials handling machines comprising a JCB JS145 tracked excavator and three JCB 560-80 Wastemaster Loadalls – its newest arrival.
Stanton processes the municipal waste inside its three buildings, which calls for a manoeuvrable materials handling vehicle. “We’ve tried loading shovels but they don’t offer the same manoeuvrability as the Loadalls, which also have a comparable capacity,” says Clifton. “The 560-80s are the best machines for this environment. We don’t have a lot of room inside our buildings for large waste moving machines so JCB’s Loadall fits the bill for our compact site. They are ideal.”
The versatile machines are used for most jobs on site. “One minute it can be a forklift, the next it can be a loader. Some loading shovels, can do this but changing attachments is not as easy,” says Clifton, adding that all of Stanton’s JCBs multitask. “They can all do each others’ jobs with their universal attachments. This means that if one of our machines needs servicing, we can swap over to another in a matter of minutes so production never stops.”
Outside the buildings, Stanton uses its JS145 to handle green waste brought in by the local council. Stanton shreds this waste to create compost for selling to commercial companies. Like the Loadalls, the JS145 can be quickly reassigned with a switch of an attachment.
“JCB’s Wastemasters are far in front of any other machine that we’ve had on site because they are built for the waste job,” says Clifton. “We have looked at other machines but they are not a patch on the JCBs. Our drivers love them because of the great visibility from the cabs and they get to work in a very comfortable environment. That’s particularly important because they don’t get fatigued while working six to seven hours a day.”
Safety has always been paramount on Stanton’s site, which has an impressive health and safety record – reporting over 4600 (and counting) working days without any accidents. “That’s very good for the waste industry,” says Clifton. “During a recent routine inspection, the HSE were impressed with the JCBs’ reversing cameras and sirens.”
Having invested in materials handling machinery, waste and recycling sites will want to get the most out of them. Stanton is maximising the productivity and uptime of its machines using JCB’s LiveLink telematics system. This gives Stanton regular reports via email showing a break down of a machine’s daily operation, including work hours and fuel consumption. Time not running is illustrated in grey while running time is shown in orange. Stanton gets clear visibility of the machine’s utilisation – and there are few grey areas on Stanton’s site.
“A Loadall may be loading lorries and moving waste around. We can see clearly what work it’s doing and what work it has actually done. We can monitor which machines are doing the most hours and working the hardest and we can rotate the machines on to an easier job and let the new machines get the harder work. LiveLink also tells us when a machine is due for maintenanceand will flag up any issues a machine may have.”
Back-up
For Stanton, reliable back-up is crucial. “There’s no machine that won’t break down eventually, so it’s all about how quickly it can be fixed,” says Clifton. “We have had machines in the past from other suppliers where we couldn’t get parts for two to three weeks but with JCB, if we do have a problem it will be fixed within 24-48 hours. This is vital for machines operating in a rugged environment such as waste transfer site.
“In the event of a breakdown, the service we receive from our JCB dealer, TC Harrison JCB, is second to none.” TC Harrison has a depot in Derby and head office in Chapeltown, Sheffield. “If I ring JCB up, somebody will turn up the same day or at least first thing the next morning. Its service is over and above that of any other machinery supplier. Plus, I don’t think there’s any other manufacturer that offers a similar connection with the people who supply the kit.”
Stanton purchases its machines using finance. “It’s not just that you get a new machine with all of JCB’s features that make it fit for purpose on a waste and recycling site such as ours, you also get a competitive rate from JCB Finance. With the warranties and servicing contracts we have a fixed monthly cost, which makes budgeting easier – that works for any business,” says Clifton.
Stanton normally exchanges on a three-year cycle – sometimes four years, depending on the hours they do. The machine’s solid tyres won’t have to be replaced during its lifespan on the site. “The oldest machine on site is coming up to 4500 hours – that will be the next machine to be moved out.
Clifton concludes: “For us, the whole package around the machines is important. We will stay with JCB as long as they keep providing us with what we want.”