Ascan Geaser chooses the equipment options from Geesinknorba Spain for its innovation and design.
Timothy Byrne
Ascan Geaser, the largest environmental services company in Cantabria, specializing in providing services for municipalities, has recently purchased a fleet of 34 new waste collection vehicles from Geesinknorba Spain. This new fleet has been bought to service the new waste, recycling and street cleansing 10-year contract that Ascan Geaser won from the municipality of Santander in 2013. The company had been providing waste, recycling, street and beach cleansing services for Santander for the previous eight years and, having passed the rigorous procurement exercise, was awarded the contract to provide these essential front line services. The company also provides environmental services to other municipalities in Cantabria, Galicia, Madrid, Catalonia and the Canary islands.
The City of Santander Collection
Santander is the capital of Cantabria and has a population of 300,000 people. The city is a busy port providing ferry links from northern Spain to other countries in Europe e.g. via Plymouth and Portsmouth in the UK. Many tourists visit Santander each year producing 56,892 tons of non-recyclable waste (2015 figures), dry recyclables; 3,288 tons of paper and cardboard (2015 figures) and 1,812 tons of plastics—HDPE, PET, TETRAPACK, ferrous and non-ferrous tin cans commingled (2015 figures).
The new fleet of waste collection vehicles comprises of 12 Rossi satellite waste collection vehicles, which feature seven Rossi QUBE units of 5.5m3 capacity complete with compaction and bin lift whilst five of the R205 model of 5.5m3 capacity have also been supplied without compaction. These are mounted onto 3.5 ton two-axle 4×2 Renault Master Euro 6 compliant chassis. Eleven of these units are equipped with a trunnion/bar lift to handle 360 liter and 1000 liter containers of DIN 30700 and DIN 30740 specifications. These vehicles will work both night and day clearing waste deposited in bags, boxes and some bulky wastes next to 2,200 and 3,200 liter side loader containers at communal collection points in the centre of Santander as well as the suburbs. One of these new Rossi units has no lifter fitted and has been supplied in open back mode for use for the manual loading of waste. The new Rossi QUBE and R205 units will also collect waste from 360 liter containers at some apartment buildings inside the city where larger containers and larger vehicles cannot gain access. Once full, these units discharge into a Geesinknorba ‘N’ Series 15H25 rear loader, which acts as a mothership transferring the waste from the Rossi units to the waste treatment plant in Cantabria province.
Two Geesinknorba ‘N’ Series 15H25 rear loaders were also purchased from Geesinknorba Spain. These are fitted with the L200 bin lift, which consists of a trunnion/comb lift to DIN 30700/DIN 30740 specifications. One of these units has a detachable rave extension fitted to facilitate the emptying by the fleet of Rossi QUBE and R205 satellite units. These new ‘N’ Series units have been mounted onto MAN TGM 4×2 18 ton two-axle chassis with Euro 6 compliant engines. The chassis has been fitted with a MAN semi automatic 12-speed transmission. One of these units will collect waste from markets as well as from special areas where 360 and 1,000 liter containers are deployed. A total of one hundred 360 and 1,000 liter containers in combined sizes are used for this service. These units will work 24 hours a day on a three shift cycle e.g. morning, afternoon and night. The ‘N’ Series has a high compaction ratio of 6:1 so these new units will yield high payloads when collecting market waste etc. and transferring waste from the smaller Rossi QUBE and R205 units. The ‘N’ Series units also have the SmartPack system fitted which helps to reduce fuel consumption by 15 percent.
Additional Vehicles
Twenty AMS CL1 series side loaders were also purchased consisting of one CL1-N unit of 15m3 capacity and mounted onto an Iveco Eurocargo 180E28 4X2 18 ton two-axle chassis. This Iveco unit features a Euro 6 compliant engine of 280 horsepower and the Allison 3000 Series five-speed automatic transmission. An AMS CL-N unit of 16m3 capacity was also purchased and mounted onto a MAN TGM 4×2 18 ton two-axle chassis fitted with a MAN Euro 6 compliant engine of 320 horsepower and the MAN 12-speed semi automatic transmission. Sixteen AMS CL1-N side loaders of 25m3 capacity mounted onto MAN TGS 6×2 tag axle three-axle 26 ton chassis were also bought. These chassis feature the 320 horsepower Euro 6 series engine and the MAN 12-speed semi automatic transmission. Finally, two AMS CL1- E electric side loaders were purchased, mounted onto MAN TGS 6×2 tag axle three-axle 26 ton chassis with MAN´S 320 horsepower Euro 6 series low emissions compliant engine and the MAN 12-speed semi-automatic transmission. Ascan Geaser decided to purchase two of the CL1-E electric side loaders off Geesinknorba Spain to use for collecting waste in the center of Santander because of the units reduced CO2, NOx and reduced noise emissions.
The new fleet of 20 AMS CL1-N and CL1-E side loading waste collection vehicles collect waste from side loader collection containers of 2,200 and 3,200 litres capacity. Ascan Geaser purchased 3,600 new side loader containers to coincide with the renewal of the waste collection contract. The containers are at communal collection points throughout the city. There are three specific waste streams collected in these containers: residual waste, mixed paper and cardboard, plastics: HDPE, PET, TETRAPACK, ferrous and non-ferrous tin cans commingled.
Twelve of the new AMS CL1 series side loaders operate nightly from 10pm until 4am. These collect non-recyclable waste from the city centre and, once full, deliver their load of waste to the waste treatment plant once or twice nightly. Ascan also collects non-recyclable waste using the CL1 series side loaders from 4am for the outer suburbs then delivering it to Cantabria’s waste treatment plant. These vehicles finish their shift at 10am. A side loader also works in the afternoon from 2pm to 8pm collecting non-recyclable waste.
Three of the new AMS CL1 series side loaders are deployed collecting recyclable wastes e.g. mixed paper and cardboard, whist one is deployed collecting plastics: HDPE, PET, TETRAPACK, ferrous and non-ferrous tin cans commingled. This starts at 6am and the dry recyclables collected are delivered to a recycling facility operated by Urbaser SA for Cantabria for baling and shipment to processors.
Further Optimization
To further optimize the productivity of the new waste collection service, Ascan Geaser has deployed the use of a GIS sensor, provided by NEC, which provides real-time data to both the municipality and Ascan, detailing how full each 2,200 and 3,200 side loading waste collection container is. When waste is deposited in the containers, the sensor calculates how much cubic air space the waste will consume and then sends the percentage of bin capacity left per m3 to Ascan Geaser and to the municipality. This system helps Ascan Geaser to optimize their waste collection service across Santander by designing new waste collection rounds from this data so that only full containers are emptied, thus helping to reduce operational costs and the carbon footprint. The data is provided in the form of colored pie charts through real time to Ascan and the Santander municipality with different colors distinguishing the different waste streams e.g. red: paper and cardboard; yellow: plastics, ferrous and non-ferrous tin cans commingled; etc. The percentage of the bin capacity used is provided in the center of the coloured pie chart, e.g. 100 percent full, 50 percent half full and 25 percent a quarter full. The NEC system is also used to deploy the whole of Ascan Geaser’s fleet of waste collection vehicles and street cleansing vehicles. Management, as well as the municipality, can see how long waste collection and street cleansing vehicles are taking to carry out the service. If a breakdown (e.g. a puncture) occurs, the NEC system will relay this information to ASCAN and Santander municipality so that a solution can be found to complete the round. Thirty of ASCAN´S vehicles CO2 and NOx emissions are monitored using the NEC system with the data being provided to Santander municipality to demonstrate that Ascan’s fleet are totally low emission compliant vehicles and contributing to improving air emissions. The NEC system makes all data totally transparent for both Ascan and Santander municipality to see any time of the day as well as data logged from the previous working day is available for review.
Providing a More Sustainable Waste Collection System
Ruben Varela, Chief Executive Officer of the Environmental Division of Ascan Geaser, explained that, “Ascan chose the equipment options from Geesinknorba Spain for the new waste collection service in Santander because it was innovative and designed with the emphasis of Smart Cities in mind. The new fleet of Rossi, ‘N’ Series and AMS CL1 side loader units has helped to provide a more sustainable waste collection system for the city of Santander. This, combined with the use of the NEC GIS system has helped to reduce costs as well as improve operational efficiency.”
Marco Antonio Casaos, Technical Director of the Environmental Division of Ascan Geaser, explained that, “A long standing working relationship with Geesinknorba Spain had existed combined with a good delivery time for all 34 new waste collection vehicles supplied.” He continued by saying that Geesinknorba’s products were of a high quality and backed up with a three year warranty. Price was also a factor in choosing Geesinknorba Spain to supply the new fleet of waste collection vehicles for the new contract.
In conclusion, Geesinknorba Spain has provided a fleet of their latest innovative generation of waste collection vehicles to help improve the environment of Santander and which will provide a sustainable waste collection system for the city for many years to come.
Timothy Byrne is a worldwide waste collection and transfer systems consultant and a freelance waste management technical writer based in Birmingham, UK. He has worked in the waste management industry for 20 years. He lives in the UK and has carried out a lot of work and research into waste collection and waste transfer systems in Mediterranean countries. He has also visited New Delhi to carry out research into waste collection and waste transfer systems in India’s capital city. He can be reached at 0044 1384 211001 or 0044 7545 616110 or via e-mail at [email protected].
