Getting a Handle on Waste

Taking a look back at one of my articles previously published in Earthmovers, un-edited, with alternative photos and video.

Based in the medieval cathedral city of Salisbury in Wiltshire, C. Bialek Ltd, who trade as C.B Skips, has been operating in the area for over 35 years. The company has gained an enviable reputation over the years and has subsequently become one of the most successful skip hire and waste management businesses in Wiltshire.

The company was established by Peter Bialek who, coincidentally, has just turned 75 years young and bears the initials of his father Claus Bialek. Like so many businesses the firm has evolved from small beginnings, initially running one lorry and operating out of a caravan on the site, but has expanded massively over the years to become what it is today.

C. B Skips cover a 20-mile radius from their Salisbury facility and includes Andover, Fordingbridge, Landford, Netheravon, Stockbridge, Tidworth, and Whiteparish.

The companies’ premises are ideally located to avoid any disturbance on the outskirts of the city and are shielded away from view by attractive large green bushes and a long driveway, to be honest, unless you knew differently, you would pass by and not even realise the operation was going on there, which is ideal from an environmental perspective.

Once you arrive at the yard area which covers in excess of 9,793m³ it’s a bustling and busy operation as we expect from these establishments. Human capacity to produce rubbish is astonishing and its not until you visit these licensed recycling operations, that you realise just how much material is being generated on an annual basis.

Debbie Trant, Managing Director of the operation in Salisbury estimates that on average they process around 24,700 tonnes of waste product over the course of a year. On an average day the trucks amass 60-day jobs including deliveries and collections.

Pictured Above Left to Right - Jed Morton yard oversight, Deb Trant MD, & Paul Forrest Transport & General Manager.

The company prides itself on their extremely high volumes of recycled material, with only a small amount of fines soil going to landfill, everything else is recycled or is recovered for energy in burning facilities.

The company currently runs 9 lorries including one spare truck allowing for breakdowns, delivering various sized skips ranging from 2 cubic yard up to 35 cubic yard Roro’s.

Significant investment was made 5 years ago with the purchase and installation of a static double decked waste recycling system, featuring waste screen, picking station cabin, air separator, associated conveyors and automation control, all of which were supplied by Northern Ireland based manufacturer the MK Group.

The operation focuses around a number of large industrial scale sheds where different materials are deposited from returning skips and the recycling process begins. We were given a guided tour by yard overview manager Jed Morton where we got to see the companies fleet of 10 x JCB machines in action.

Our first port of call was to see machine operator Dan Pickering who has worked for the company for over 8 years. Dan operates a JCB 86C-2 c/w selector grab, processing mixed waste from both skip lorries and customer vans. Eagle eyed readers might spot that this machine was previously owned by Gloucester based hire firm Rocket Rentals.

In the adjoining shed James Burke is running the 13-tonne class, JCB JS131LC Plus which is also equipped with a selector grab, this machine processes the majority of mixed waste skips that arrive at the facility. Both these machines are feeding material to another 8.5-tonne class JCB 86C-1, operated by Mark Pitman aka “Sharkey”. This machine which is fitted with a standard digging bucket is effectively working from the same position all day, every day, with the primary role of loading material onto the initial conveyor belt at the start of the segregation process.

As is the industry standard, the material is separated at different points along screen belt, before larger items continue along the conveyor belt up into the picking station. Up in the cabin a team of up to 7 operatives can work the belt, selecting waste and hand placing it into various shoots, where it drops down into the relevant storage bays.

In another separate shed we discover yet another JCB 86C-1 equipped with a selector grab and operated by Dale Hayes. This operation is mostly dedicated to customers vans that come into the yard, which according to Jed, can vary from 60 to 80 vans a day on average. This shed is also used for bailing up the plastics, cardboard and scrap metals.

The star machine in the yard is the JCB JS20MH wheeled excavator, this dedicated 20-tonne class material handling machine features the 5.7m straight boom and high-rise cab which elevates to 2.1m for improved visibility when loading high sided trucks. Fitted with the 3.6m dipper arm offers a maximum lift height of 10,606mm and a maximum reach at ground level of 8806mm, slightly more with the fitted selector grab. This machine is operated by Charlie Hughes who is also the assistant yard manager.

JCB are also the choice for telehandlers at C.B Skips, although we did spot a solitary veteran Manitou machine. The two JCB Loadall models consist of a 550-80 Wastemaster and a 560-80 both of which were sporting solid waste spec tyres.

The 560-80 fitted with a bulk material bucket with integrated refuse clamp, was being operated by the highly experienced yard manager Colin Le-Gate who was using the machine to load processed biomass wood waste onto an articulated lorry, displaying its manoeuvrability and versatility in a tight quarter loading area.

The JCB portfolio is also complimented by the compact Teletruk 35D 4x4 a small but extremely useful piece of equipment fitted with a 0.9m dumpy bag filling bucket from Titus Attachments, which is hydraulicly operated. This machine which is operated by Luke Southey, is also used to load materials such as topsoil and aggregates onto pick-ups and small trucks on the weighbridge.

Completing the JCB line up is a JS220LC which is generally kept as a standby machine out in the back yard area.

Talking to Peter Bialek it was very clear that he is a JCB man at heart, however as a business, they tend to buy machines independently and don’t deal with the main dealers. They focus on sourcing good quality second hand machines to purchase and they work closely with a guy called Chris Elliott from Southampton who does all their machine inspection work and servicing.

When they go to look at a potential purchase Chris goes along with C.B Skips Transport and General Manager Paul Forrest to make an informed decision, one of the most recent purchases is a Terex TDS 820 tracked mobile shredder which will be a useful addition to the arsenal of equipment.

Talking about machine replacements Deb Trant said, “We don’t actually run a scheduled fleet replacement programme as such, but we are constantly evaluating the machines performance and when they get to a stage where they are suffering too much downtime, we replace them as and when its necessary”.  

The team out in the yard and on the road are well supported by a three-man team in the workshops, which includes to fitters and a full-time welder fabricator Matt Kujawa, who on the day of our visit was virtually building a new skip from scratch.

The waste and recycling industry is a tough environment for machines and the men & women who work in it. The pace of vehicles coming into the yard on the day of Earthmovers visit was relentless and by all accounts its like that five and half days a week.

But my overriding impression was of a very happy workforce who are super-efficient at what they do, there are fathers and sons, brothers and sisters all working there so it has quite a family feel to the business, and as the old saying goes, ‘where there’s muck, there’s brass’ seems very appropriate.