UNTHA shredding technology in Austria specialise in the supply of shredding solutions and they have designed a new concept MSW Waste Shredder.
Traditionally the waste industry have used two shaft shredders which has now become old technology. Two shaft shredders have many problems concerning wear, particle sizing and un-shreddable materials which are often found in municipal waste. In the case of un-shreddable items in a two shaft shredder it can be necessary for operatives to climb into the machine and manually remove the un-shreddable item which, in turn, leads to Health and Safety problems.
UNTHA have addressed this H&S problem and the other issues by specifically designing the XR shredder for municipal waste.
Chris Oldfield MD of Riverside Waste Machinery Ltd (who are sole distributors of UNTHA shredders in the UK), told The Skip, “These new XR has wear cost which is only approximately 10% of that of traditional shredder and have the facility to easily remove un-shreddable or ‘tramp’ materials, without putting the operatives at risk”.
Once the XR has shredded the municipal waste, the processed material can then if required be separated into organics, woods, plastics and metals etc. via equipment such as screeners and conveyors.
To demonstrate the UNTHA XR 2000S Shredder in the UK, Riverside are bringing a demonstration machine over at the end of April and they are looking for a host company who would site the machine and provide waste for shredding for a week. Riverside would then like to bring in potential Customers to see the shredder in operation, shredding Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and skip waste.
Chris Oldfield managing director at Riverside Waste Machinery points out how the XR has proved useful in Europe. “The XR shredder has already proved successful in Energy from Waste (EfW) plants all over mainland Europe. In European countries they have a lot more incinerators which generate power from waste to serve the local community. This is where the UNTHA XR shredder has been used – for the pre-shredding of MSW prior to incineration.
Any waste company who would like to try the shredder for one week should contact Riverside Waste Machinery Ltd. on 0845 450 5388 or www.wastemachinery.co.uk
This article originally appeared in Issue 20 of The Skip magazine

A skip company who are facing prosecution from their local council have fought back to claim they are victims of racism.
Councillors have backed a move to start legal proceedings against the firm, whose site they claim is an “eyesore”.
But the owner of Raj Singh UK Ltd, based in Dogsthorpe, Peterborough, thinks they have been unfairly targeted due to their ethnicity. They have also told the council that the demands made are proving difficult to comply with due to the bad weather.
Councillors Bella Saltmarsh and Adrian Miners, who represent the Dogsthorpe ward, are angered by the constant failures by the company to clean up their yard.
“It is such an eyesore,” says Cllr Saltmarsh, “The rubbish is piled high above the fence, and when it gets windy it blows everywhere.”
Cllr Miner added, “The company was warned about its failure to implement approved landscaping that was intended to shield the site and its activities from the public highway.
“It looks like the council is going to prosecute, which is a good thing, because it is a blight on the area at the moment.”
The council served a Breach of Condition Notice on July 26 last year for failing to put approved landscaping into place, and the lack of landscaping represents a significant loss to public amenity.
On August 22, Mr Singh agreed to comply with the condition notice, which stipulated that all works should have been completed by December 1st. The work has yet to be carried out.
But Raj Singh believes the council are being unjust with their behaviour claiming his two other sites in March and Kings Lynn have never had any problems with the councils.
Mr Singh said, “It is frustrating. With the inclement weather we have had over for the past few months it has been impossible to comply with the notice due to the time of year. We can’t plant the foliage they want because it is winter.
Before we moved here, the area was a big magnet for fly-tipping. We have stopped this and provide an outlet for many local businesses to legally dispose of their waste that could be jeopardised by the councillors’ determination, which in our view is misguided.”
“I also feel the council is targeting us because we are the only ethnic minority skip hire and recycling business in the whole of East Anglia.
Councillor Mike Lennox hit back against these allegations, saying, “The city council planning team includes several officers from the Indian sub continent. It is offensive to the council that somebody should suggest this.”
“To date, the works have not been carried out and the city council’s legal team is being asked to prepare papers with a view to bringing a prosecution in the magistrate’s court.”
This article originally appeared in Issue 20 of The Skip magazine

Waste management is going from bad to worse in Cumbria following The Skip’s report last month on fraud investigations in the area.
Barrow based firm CAW Ltd have had numerous waste collection contracts cancelled since revelations of the investigations were revealed. The most damaging of these cancelled contracts is Cumbria County Council’s, which contracted CAW Ltd to run seven waste tips in South Cumbria including one in Barrow.
Barrow Borough Council and South Lakeland District Council have followed suit, cancelling their contracts with CAW for it to collect green waste every fortnight.
Gary Ormondroyd, chief environmental health officer for Barrow council, said the reason behind the cancelled contract was that it appeared that CAW had not been composting material sent to it as agreed in the contract.
He said: “We served a notice on them effective from yesterday. Interim measures are in place involving other contractors in the area. There is no intention that the authority changes its collection arrangements. There is no need for the public to worry.”
But the public are worrying! And council bosses have had to apologise to residents struggling to dump their waste at one Barrow tip.
Since the Walney Road civic amenity site reopened earlier this year residents have said the service has descended into chaos.
Many have been unable to recycle items such as newspapers and plastic bottles and vehicles have even been banned from reversing.
One nearby resident Derek Hollings told The Skip he was unable to recycle a bag full of magazines. “It’s a joke” he said, ‘there are cars everywhere, people shouting at one another and no real sense of organisation. Something needs to done.”
Other sites in Cumbria have received complaints as well. A tip in Ulverston has introduced a new one-way coned system which has caused motorists long delays and Redhills Quarry tip has received complaints regarding the difficulty in manoeuvring around the site.
The county council decided to cancel CAW contracts to run rubbish dumps at Ambleside, Barrow, Grange, Kendal, Kirkby Stephen, Millom and Ulverston following the launch of a fraud probe by police and trading standards officers just before Christmas.
The county stated that it had used emergency powers to cancel contracts on the grounds they have committed breaches which are incapable of being remedied.
But many Cumbrian residents fear the service now in place is failing and are eager to know what is going to be done to rectify the situation.
This article originally appeared in Issue 20 of The Skip magazine