Waste Recycling Group (WRG) is one of the leading waste management services companies in the UK. Each year they receive, recycle and dispose of more than 15 million tonnes of household, commercial and industrial waste.

Customer requirements

At their Ecclesfield, Sheffield site, WRG treat between 50,000 and 60,000 tonnes of waste a year rendering it harmless to the environment and enabling its safe disposal. Because of the diversity of waste products delivered to this site, and available from their other sites across the UK, the company is able to apply some imaginative chemistry using one waste to neutralise another whenever possible. Much of the material delivered to Ecclesfield is in single trip Big Bags (FIBC’s). They needed a Big Bag Discharger to empty the bags and a method of transferring the discharged product to their cavernous blending tank.

Spiroflow solutions

A Spiroflow Big Bag Discharger and Aero-Mechanical Conveyor are used to empty lime-like powders from single trip Big Bags and to convey them 8 metres vertically and 5 metres horizontally to a seriously large holding tank where they are used to neutralise the acidity of liquid waste. The solids are then separated out and sent to landfill and the harmless water is returned to the local water company.

The Spiroflow ‘T4’ Big Bag Discharger is designed to cut open the bottom of the single trip Big Bags. In addition to the flexible, primary seal, upon which the lower edges of the Big Bag sit, there is an additional seal some 200 mm above - through which the bag passes. The space between the 2 seals is connected to a sizable dust extraction system. The main purpose of this being to capture any dust generated when the bottom is automatically cut as the bag is lowered in to place and before the full weight of the bag makes contact with the primary seal.

Near total evacuation of the bags is ensured by way of timed vibration at the end of the emptying cycle. Vibration is also activated by way of a level probe should the normally free-flowing contents of the Big Bags become problematic due to high moisture content or compaction during storage.

When asked why WRG chose Spiroflow equipment, Operations Manager Paul Southgate confirms, “I had used Spiroflow successfully over a number of years in a previous position and therefore I turned to them for assistance with this job and have been well pleased with the equipment and their after sales support”.