Hyundai Trio For McCarthy Marland

March 15, 2021

The sprawling suburban setting of Bristol is home to waste recycling specialists McCarthy Marland. Located close to the city centre in one of the many little industrial estates dotted around the city, the company handles in excess of 60,000 tonnes of general waste per year.

Despite the tight confines of their site, currently being extended to the boundary, the throughput of material is very impressive with an almost constant flow of their own skip and grab wagons along with council and outside vehicles entering and leaving the site.

To handle the waste material, McCarthy Marland have invested in a fleet of Hyundai excavators, ranging from 8 – 15t for sorting and loading duties. This latest investment add more Hyundai machines to their fleet which already included several HX145LCR’s and a HX220L 20t class excavator.

Operations Manager for the site; Martin Williams explains that the company also runs another site in Somerset with some of the incoming material shipped directly out to this site for secondary processing. “With the size of the site, it’s far easier for us to take some material once sorted straight out to our other facility for further processing and shipping. We bring material in here on the truck and they take out another load so there is no empty running which means our transport costs are minimal.”

The latest excavators to join the fleet are three new Hyundai HX145LCR’s that have been sourced locally through Molson Equipment, a company already known to McCarty Marland. “We have been using a slow speed shredder and trommel supplied by Molson Green for a while and have found their back up and service to be excellent.” Martin explains “They’re only down the road and nothing is an issue for them if we have a problem.”

These larger machines are used around the site on a variety of duties from sorting incoming waste to loading out going materials. Two machines have been fitted with a fixed leg 5-tine grab from Geith whilst the third HX145 sports a Kinshofer rotating selector grab. “The two different grabs are ideal for different applications but can crossover.” Martin explains “The fixed leg version is ideal for bulk moving and loading of a variety of materials whilst the rotating grab is ideally used for picking and cleaning the incoming material as it is tipped.”

A fourth Hyundai, the R80CR-9A is almost constantly located up on the large pile of material in the shed and is used for loading the in-feed hopper to the 6-man picking station with material. The choice of an 8-tonne machine may seem a little strange due to its diminutive size but as Martin says, it’s all about putting a steady flow of material into the system as opposed to just filling the hopper up and then waiting for the material to flow through.

At the heart of the material recycling process is a large static MaxXtract air density separation plant which uses a flow of air to separate lights and heavies leaving a cleaner and more usable finished material. Whilst the MaxXtract plant takes up a considerable chunk of the undercover space, the two items of kit from the Molson Green range are tucked into a corner churning through the incoming material. “We couldn’t cope without these two machines.” Martin explains “They are key to us reducing the size of the material to a more manageable product.”

Incoming material is fed into the Terex Ecotec TDS 820 slow speed shredder which runs with a 994-paddle set up. Powered by a 440hp Scania engine, the 27.5t machine’s shredding chamber contains a pair of independently driven shafts designed to give maximum shredding performance with minimal material wrapping which can cause blockages and massive downtime.

Remotely controlled from the feeding excavator, the shredder has a 7m3 tilting hopper to steadily feed material into the shredding chamber. The outgoing material is fed up the 5.5m conveyor into a second Terex Ecotec product, this time a TTS 620T trommel. The 24t tracked trommel provides McCarthy Marland with two products; a sub 50mm fraction, which is sent through the MaxXtract plant, and the larger oversize material which goes through the picking station to separate it into its component parts. The 5.5m long drum is fitted with a 30mm mesh allowing the smaller material to be discharged onto the swing out, side conveyor with larger material passing through the drum and then stockpiled in front of the machine.

Whilst waste material plays a huge role in the productivity of the plant, construction and demolition waste is also handled here in smaller amounts with a high-quality topsoil being a very popular end product.

Between the two plants Martin says the company manages to impressively recycle 100% of the material entering its waste stream. Waste wood is graded and chipped for either board manufacture or biomass and any fines coming from the dry waste material being utilised as an RDF (refuse derived fuel).

The excavators on the site are fully maintained by the service team at Molson, as are the Terex Ecotec units. “They are very good with the service regime.” Martin comments “They’ll let us know when the machines are in need of service and let us know in plenty of time so that we can adjust for the down time. We staggered delivery of the machines which means only one machine will be needing service at any one time which won’t leave us too short.” Due to the hours accrued on the excavators, McCarthy Marland operate a strict three-year replacement schedule on them as older machines from another manufacturer had caused expensive and problematic downtime in the past. “So far, I’m very pleased with both the performance of the machines and from the dealer.” Martin comments “If they carry on this way, which I’m sure they will, it will be an easy choice to return to Hyundai when the time comes.”