‘If you don’t recycle, we do it for you’ is the motto of Wheeldon Brothers Ltd. This waste management company in Manchester/UK produces solid recovered fuels too. This is where a particular shredder with high output comes in: the Polaris 2800 one-step shredder from Lindner-Recyclingtech. ‘There is no better and more efficient machine for one-step shredding,’ says Wheeldon.
Manchester is one of the most attractive regions in the UK and one of the strongest economically thanks not only to celebrated football clubs, but also to the city’s culture and lifestyle. The metropolis in the North West of England with its population of approximately 520,000 does not have to hide behind London. Many theatres and cabarets, galleries and museums in the city, which was once the centre of the British textile industry and today employs most people in the service sector, bear witness to this.
The waste management sector is developing very dynamically. In 2009, for example, the local Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority initiated a £640 million investment programme to extensively modernise waste management in the Greater Manchester area by 2015: the creation and expansion of collection and disposal structures as well as recycling capacities – which also created new jobs. Nine years ago there were 25 recycling centres; today there are more than 40 materials and thermal recovery facilities in operation, including five new mechanical biological waste treatment plants (MBT) generating energy (combined heat and power). ‘Waste to Energy’ has become an important industry and market in the UK.
From A to Z – the company’s philosophy in a nutshell
Wheeldon Brothers Waste Ltd., which has sites in Bury (headquarters), Oldham, Failsworth and Ramsbottom, is a leading local waste management company. ‘If you don’t recycle, we do it for you’ is this family business’s motto. The business also specialises in the disposal of hazardous waste in the Greater Manchester area. Almost all material collected by the municipal authorities is recycled: plastics, glass, paper, wood, bulky waste, tyres, computers, televisions, flat screens, e-waste, electrical goods (refrigerators, dishwashers and washing machines, dryers, etc.), oils and other liquids and, last but not least, metals from A for aluminium to Z for zinc.
Recycling takes priority,’ says Managing Director James Wheeldon, summarising the company's philosophy, which is committed to climate, environmental and resource protection. ‘Our recycling rate is over 90 per cent. Only materials that really cannot be recycled, or where recycling would entail a high loss of quality, i.e. downcycling, are turned into solid recovered fuel.’ The SRF business has grown in recent years. At the Ramsbottom site Wheeldon operates a modern waste-to-energy plant. Waste for SRF production travels through picking lines at the Bury, Oldham and Failsworth materials recycling facilities, where dry recyclable products, i.e. card, paper, wood, plastics, metal, etc., are removed.
50 millimetres – and expectations more than satisfied
What the waste-to-energy plant in Ramsbottom lacked was a powerful yet energy-efficient 50mm shredding solution. Different competitor machines in comparison could not satisfy this criterion. Contacting Lindner was the key to success in the search for the perfect shredder for SRF production. The new Polaris 2800 one-step, stationary shredder replaced two other shredders in the plant and immediately satisfied the Wheeldon Brothers’ requirements.
James Wheeldon is more than satisfied with the machine and has also had the best experience with Lindner in terms of operability, troubleshooting, maintenance, service and technical support: ‘The machine shreds all feed material in just one pass. We save ourselves the secondary shredding and therefore reduce effort and costs. The Polaris 2800 works very reliably and economically and we achieve more homogeneous materials as a result. Lindner exceeded our expectations’, the Managing Director adds.
