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Refuse disposal and cleansing problems are international
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Ashley Taylor reports from Prague on a 34-nation public cleansing congress
• Problems that plague the cleansing services are pretty well worldwide and they are likely to be met, in part at any rate, by interchange of information between countries of similar characteristics. Very briefly that sums up the first global conference since the merging some two years ago, of INTAPUC, the International Public Cleansing Association and the International Research Group. This was the first international congress on this matter to be held in an Eastern bloc country. The gathering at Prague last week brought together 1600 delegates from 34 countries in all five continents.
From everywhere there seemed to be complaints of manpower shortage and calls for greater mechanization.
The exhibition, in which 74 manufacturers participated, stressed the international nature of public cleansing bodywork, with many designs on show familiar to the British user. However, the only British maker to take a stand was Atkinsons of Clitheroe Ltd whose offerings attracted plenty of attention. They included the City Gritter with a 0,75 Cu metre body for use with a small mini pickup in spaces that make operation of larger vehicles impracticable. Salt and /or grit are conveyed by a stainless steel conveyor chain to the single spinner, both being powered by a 2.8 hp Honda petrol unit. There was also the Spreadmiser Mk 4 body with total electronic control; a HATZ E79 diesel power unit is employed in this case. Controlled density of spread is obtained through the electronic box in the cab, this giving a combined ratio between the speed of the stainless steel conveyor and that of the spinner, the latter controlling the width of spread. The display was completed by a representative of the well-known and versatile Minitug range.
Prospects for regional refuse disposal were reviewed by David Jackson, cleansing superintendent of Sunderland, who instanced as practical examples the schemes of the GI.0 and the North Eastern area. In the latter case it was necessary to deal with 500,000 ions of municipal refuse a year and when fully operational there would be five incinerators in use. This replanning necessitated a change in the transport pattern but, in reply to questions by P. K. Patrick, GLC, Mr Jackson said , five strategically placed units would be better than a single giant incinerator as in the latter case there would be much extra mileage 10 cover bringing in refuse from the collection areas. Mr Patrick said in the case of the GI .0 they had to pay transport costs to collection authorities where these now
extended to over 5km. By the intoduction of transfer loading stations into the system collections could go on unaffected even if a hold-up occurred at one of the plants.
Manpower shortage The rapid growth in the number of cars is causing deep thought in a number of countries. Speaking on public cleansing in Czechoslovakia, Jan Vacek, head of the Department for Environmental Protection, Research and Development, Institute of Municipal Economy, complained of a serious shortage of manpower. Younger people disliked manual work, and in addition there was difficulty in recruiting drivers for specialized vehicles and appliances. Parked vehicles made effective street cleansing most difficult and in the future would make mechanical cleansing up to the kerb quite impossible.
Hans-Joachim Muller, Federal Germany, expressed relief that the world was now becoming conscious of the threat to the environment. By 1980 West Germany would be scrapping 1,600,000 older cars annually. Already they had three scrap grinding plants with nine more on the way but this facility would have to be greatly expanded. In dealing with domestic refuse he looked to the possibility of some sort of on-the-spot compression that would save the use of costly compression devices now required on the cleansing vehicles.
Essentially, one should aim for some measure of standardization in units for municipal services, for both economic and technical reasons. Too wide a range of designs meant costly carrying of spares stocks and eventually could lead to important apiiliances being off the road at the very moment they were most needed. The West German Union of Commercial Enterprises for Transport and Municipal Cleansing was working on directives for standards for vehicles, cleansing appliances, tools, and protective clothing for cleansing workers. Fleets that were formerly simple in nature now included much complicated technical equipment but because of the manpower shortage in their country they were having to employ foreign workers.
Town centres were being replanned with pedestrian zones that introduced enormous difficulties in waste disposal. Around these zones they should have underground garages of ample capacity. Apart from the construction of chutes for pneumatic refuse removal from the precincts, fresh plans should be evolved for the delivery of goods.
The fact that refuse collection vehicles created obstacles to traffic in increasingly busy streets must not be overlooked. This could in part be met by staggering collection times although administrative and technical difficulties might be involved, while timing of rounds for night or early morning was liable to create complaints regarding noise. Here the advantages of the Swedish pneumatic removal method became apparent but a condition for this system was a certain minimum density of population.
Herr Muller thought it possible that in the near future the refuse collection vehicle would be of the semi-trailer type because of greater capacity as well as the advantages of interchangeability. High compression potential would be an advantage. Noise which caused annoyance could be cut down by sound-insulated power units and plastic superstructures.
Pascal Molinari, France, commented that the speaker had forecast large capacity vehicles with high compression. However, running costs depended largely on the transport haul and thus on the rotation rate of the vehicles. Such considerations must be taken into account in future planning of cities.
Duncan Nicholson, Great Britain, said that where giant bins were being moved it was necessary to provide an approach road of sufficient strength to allow the collection vehicle to approach the chamber. There were possibilities in an idea he had seen in Germany where the collection teams had a very light fork-lift truck which actually made the collection and dropped the refuse into the vehicle which remained on the road. Thus they could have a lighter approach road surface and there was no need for heavy lifting gear on the vehicle itself. Ervin Ginder, Yugoslavia, an architect. stressed the importance of proper provision for the approach of cleansing and other vehicles being incorporated in the design of every new building.
Reviewing development trends in highway cleaning and snow clearance Franz Fischer, Austria, contended that as the number of cars increased there was a growing need for snow to be completely removed and not merely pushed aside. This was done by the use of mechanical loaders. Otherwise the normal front loaders were employed simply because in winter they could easily be hired from other departments or contractors. Among loaders working on the elevator principle a Russian design had come into increasing favour, especially in Eastern countries. With this the snow was picked up with shovel-like arms, lifted on to a conveyor belt, the latter actually loading the snow on to the lorry.
Street service vehicles should be granted special traffic privileges to enable them to fulfil their tasks in the busy streets. In Paris cleansing vehicles had considerable concessions including the right to drive against the traffic when necessary in a one-way street. In the German Federal Republic they could park anywhere at any time and drive in both directions on restricted streets if on duty.
Means of making work in public cleansing more attractive to the rising generation were examined in a paper by H. A. van Dijk, Netherlands, who said that although technology had contributed in a positive way to improving the image of the job it was still well down the social scale. Various departments in Holland were taking action by brightening up the appearances of vehicles and appliances, providing smart uniforms and canteens.
Helmuth Orth, West Germany,
Left. A new Skode 705 FITIC-K-Bobr truck being used to take waste from a large, wheeled domestic refuse container.
commented that even if street cleansing took place at night they still wanted to make the task more widely appreciated. In Dusseldorf some years ago they had changed over from individual operators to a mechanized team.
This comprised a driver, four manual workers and an orange-painfed vehicle. The cleansing team had a working uniform plus a danger jacket in a striking colour.
Cllr Mrs J. L. Morgan, Norwich, said that despite advances in many sectors this work still depended on the human element and therefore they had to endeavour to take the dirt out of the job. The public should be given plastic or paper sacks and the collection teams white overalls. Jan Sibiga, Poland. said workers were having an increasing influence today. Practically every public cleansing department in Poland had a bus that took the men to the mountains or seaside during their leisure time; they had free clothing and facilities for sports. There was now no holiday differential between office and manual workers, all had 28 days after six years' service. Aid R. F. Craine, Liverpool, said people judged a newly visited city on whether its streets were clean or dirty. Staffs must be made to realize that they were appreciated as the first line of defence in public health.
In general, the appliances shown at the exhibition were designs well-known to users of this class of equipment in Britain. A formidable item was the Finnish-made Tana Jumbo which will crush an abandoned light van into an inches-high collection of scrap in a matter of seconds.
Mtilltechnik GmbH of Munster were offering technical advice on the setting up of a refuse transfer station for the transfer of waste from local collection units to large articulated vehicles that could deliver heavy loads to the final disposal points. High payloads are achieved by the transfer process which is effected through powerful stationary packers to which the trailer is locked during the process of loading. The packing mechanism compresses a charging box, a double-acting packer cylinder, packer head, a self-contained removable power unit, control panel with pre-programmed options, and an automatic trailer locking device. The unit exhibited consisted of a DAF tractor with Geesink twin-axle trailer.