Product News in Brief

Bin weighing technology for City of London

The Enviroweigh bin-weighing system, designed by Reading-based Vehicle Weighing Solutions, has been introduced to Enterprises fleet of Geesink Plug-in Electric Multi-faction RCVs. The technology is intended to provide more accurate waste and recycling data and is integrated with GPS and telemetry technologies for remote monitoring purposes.

Commenting on the technology, Mick Aherne, fleet business development director for Enterprise, said: We are responding to increasing demand from clients in London who want to know exactly how much waste they are disposing of and what proportion is being recycled. Corporate Social Responsibility, a drive to reduce their carbon footprint and the increasing cost of disposing of waste at landfill sites is providing a significant impetus for organisations to measure the whole life cost of their operations, including their waste.

Vehicle Weighing Solutions has also launched Skip Weigh, a piece of technology that is fitted to the loading arm of a vehicle which allows it to weigh skips. It incorporates wireless technology so the weight can automatically be displayed on a hand held reader.

Online system for Landfill Communities Fund

Entrust, the Landfill Community Fund regulator, has partnered with Bristol-based IT firm Spark Data Systems to install a new Entrust online IT system which allows organisations looking for funding to submit applications and further information online.

The LCF is a tax credit scheme that allows landfill operators to use some of their landfill tax to directly fund not-for-profit organisations. Following the installation of Entrust online the firm said it had seen significant improvements in functionality and has reduced the number of paper applications it receives.

Lee Fedder, director at Sparks, said: Entrust online is a system that allows organisations to enrol as environment bodies, register projects and submit data to Entrust. Before Entrust online was implemented, 80% of applications were received on paper forms and the data had to be manually inputted. Now, this has been completely reversed, with at least 80% of applications now received online. Now that most of the applications come through the new system, the time needed to process them has reduced significantly.

Recycling industry helps drive conveyer chain sales

Conveyor chain manufacturer and supplier FB Chain Ltd has reported a 70% increase in sales of its conveyer chains for 2011/12, which it said was driven by sales to biomass and recycling industries.

FB Chain produces conveyor chains with welded pins and bushes that have tensile strengths. FB said these induction-hardened chains offer higher durability against overloading and minimise chain failure and subsequent costly conveyor downtime.

Peter Church, managing director of FB Chain, said: The biomass and recycling industries are quickly becoming major sectors in the UK and it is essential that we continue to develop our product offering to meet the needs of these markets. I believe that sales of conveyor chains, sprockets and attachments specially adapted to the specific requirements of biomass and recycling operations, will represent a growing part of FB Chains conveyor chain business in the years ahead.

In addition Mr Church urged those using conveyers to use a sprocket with an odd number of teeth, as opposed to one with an even number of teeth as he said they offer at least double the service life.

Oxfordshire set to trial reuse app

Oxfordshire county council is set to be the first local authority to use an online platform designed to help residents and businesses reuse unwanted items or manufacture products from them.

Retrader.org.uk is a free platform available to councils across the UK. It was developed by The Vyouz Network. The platform is available as a website and an app which can be used on iPhone and Android phones. The council said it is confident that it will bring big environmental benefits such as a reduction in the amount of material sent to landfill.

Gavin Hull, Oxfordshires commercial waste officer, who worked in collaboration with the developers, said: To meet todays ever increasing demands for reuse & recycling, we felt it made sense to provide help and encouragement to local business and organisations by providing the very latest technologies to them. Retrader.org.uk does just that and we are delighted to be the first council in the UK to trial and launch it.

Biogas storage increasingly important

The storage of energy in the form of biogas is set to play an increasingly important role worldwide, according to biogas plant manufacturer Weltec Biopower.

The comments came after the firm installed a spherical gas storage tank at environmental technology specialist Inwatechs site in Szeged, South Hungary in December 2011.The company said that intermediate storage of the gas is an alternative option where an investment in a biogas feed-in station is not feasible. Weltech Biopower said this method is increasingly common in countries such as Hungary and has already received further orders for biogas plants with spherical gas storage tanks.

Commenting on this, Hajo Schierhold, head of sales, said: Following our proven approach, the plants will be planned and realised together with the cooperation partner Inwatech.