The municipality’s new fleet of waste collection vehicles will be used to collect waste seven days a week across the municipality, making significant improvements to waste collection.
Toumbas Special Vehicles Superstructures, one of the main suppliers of waste collection vehicles in Greece and Eastern Europe, has supplied eight of its DT16 series 16m3 rear loading waste collection vehicles to the municipality of Ampelokipon Menemenis in Thessaloniki Prefecture. The purchase was made from a 2.2. million Euros European Union funding allocation to help the municipality of Ampelokipon Menemenis upgrade its existing fleet of waste collection vehicles. The eight new waste collection vehicles will be used to collect non-recyclable waste across the municipality.
The new Toumbas DT16 waste collection vehicles feature a superstructure made totally of Hardox 450 steel, which will give a longer service life and be ideal for collecting abrasive waste materials. The use of the Hardox 450 steel also gives the waste collection vehicle superstructure a weight saving compared to other competitors’ waste collection vehicles made out of heavier, less durable steel. The weight saving means the new DT16 waste collection vehicles can achieve a higher legal payload. The new DT16 series units are mounted onto DAF LF Euro 6 4×2 two-axle 20 tonne chassis, which feature a 280 horsepower engine and a day cab complete with a dual passenger seat for the seating of a driver and two operatives. The DAF LF chassis features the DAF 8 speed manual transmission and Goodyear 295/80R 22.5 tyres.
Weekly Waste Collection
The new fleet of waste collection vehicles will be used to collect waste seven days a week across the municipality, using the five day working week to collect waste from all areas of the municipality, with weekend collection from main roads and central areas. The non-recyclable waste fraction across Ampelokipon Menemenis is deposited in 1,100 liter containers at communal collection points along the street. The municipality’s new fleet of waste collection vehicles leave the depot at 5.30 a.m. to start collecting waste at 6.00 a.m. The two waste collection operatives position the 1,100 liter containers at the rear of the new DT16 waste collection vehicles to be lifted with a Toumbas trunnion/comb lift, which is applicable to DIN 30700 and DIN 30740 EN15001certification. Once the 1,100 liter containers have been emptied, they are replaced at the communal collection point by the two waste collection operatives. The compaction mechanism designed in the DT16 rear loader is of the slide block type with a conventional packer and carriage blade. The DT16 delivers a high compaction force of 6:1, which achieves a high legal payload of eight tonnes once the DT16 rear loader is full.
Once the waste collection vehicle is full, it travels to the Mavrorahi sanitary landfill site, which is the landfill for the whole Prefecture of Thessaloniki. This site is operated by FODSA, a public company managing waste for the Association of Local Authorities of the Prefecture of Thessaloniki. It manages the treatment of waste from the 2 million inhabitants living in the Prefecture.
The eight new Toumbas waste collection vehicles operated by the municipality of Ampelokipon Menemenis collect one load of waste six days a week, e.g. Monday to Saturday, but on Mondays they collect two loads of waste. This is because some areas of the municipality do not have a waste collection service on Sundays and so there is extra waste put out on Mondays.
Replacing Outdated Vehicles
The Mayor of the municipality of Ampelokipon Menemenis said that he realized that the current fleet of waste collection vehicles were outdated, proving to be unreliable and were not providing the required working conditions for the municipalities’ drivers and operatives. The municipality accessed 2.2 million Euros from the EU funds for Cohesion Policy (ESPA) provided by the European Union from 2007 to 2013, which enabled them to replace the existing fleet of waste collection vehicles. A tender was advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) with the requirements and specification for the eight new waste collection vehicles of 16m3 capacity. After the submission for tenders had closed, all submissions by waste collection vehicle manufacturers were reviewed and it was decided that Toumbas Special Vehicles Superstructures offered the best value for money in terms of specification of the new fleet of waste collection vehicles. They were assessed in terms of whole life costs and simplicity in operation, e.g. the electrics which operated the Toumbas DT16 waste collection vehicle superstructure were simple and of the non-canbus type.
Therefore, Toumbas Special Vehicles Superstructures received the order to supply the eight new waste collection vehicles. The Mayor concluded by saying that, in conjunction with the purchase of the Euro 6 chassis, the new Toumbas DT16 waste collection vehicles would reduce fuel consumption, emissions and noise emissions across the municipality. This would deliver 0 percent operating costs for both the Toumbas waste collection vehicle body and the DAF LF Euro 6 chassis. This would also help the municipality to deliver a more sustainable and efficient waste collection service to its citizens while it helped to improve the working conditions for the municipalities’ drivers and operatives.
Improvement to Waste Collection
In conclusion, the Toumbas DT16 waste collection vehicle has made a significant improvement to waste collection across the municipality of Ampelokipon Menemenis. This is evident by Delta municipality, the neighboring municipality to Ampelokipon Menemenis, purchasing two identical specification DT16 waste collection vehicles from Toumbas Special Vehicles Superstructures mounted on DAF LF Euro 6 4×2 two-axle 20 ton chassis.
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].