JCB has supplied a fleet of machines from its specialist waste and recycling range to a new £32 million Waste Transfer Station (WTS) and Household Waste and Recycling Centre (HWRC) on the island of Guernsey. 

Based at Longue Hougue, some two miles north of Guernsey's capital, St Peter Port, the new facility has been commissioned and built as part the Island's waste strategy to relieve pressure on the existing landfill site, which is approaching capacity. 

The Guernsey waste transfer station is comprised of three halls:

  • Hall 1 contains a food drop off bunker and associated processing equipment; 
  • Hall 2 contains two large drop off bunkers for general household black bag waste and pre-sorted commercial waste. The material is mixed on the floor and loaded into a shredder; 
  • Hall 3 contains a glass storage bunker and all of the processing equipment which handles the general waste converting it into material classified as refuse-derived fuel (RDF) bales ready for export. 

In all, there are six new JCB machines in operation across the site: four TLT35Ds; a 541-70; and a 437 front wheeled loader from the JCB Wastemaster range.

Within the first hall, food waste - which is collected from the island's 63,000 inhabitants separately from general refuse - is tipped from refuse vehicles and delivered to the processing machinery by a JCB TLT35D fitted with a GP bucket attachment. The waste food is turned into slurry, which is pumped into ISO tankers ready for export to an anaerobic digestion plant in the UK.  Currently 4-5 tanker-loads a week will be exported to the UK.

The JCB TLT35D is ideally suited to its role within the food processing hall due to its small footprint and ability to manoeuvre within a small area whilst also having enough power to lift a significant payload into the feed hopper.

Hall two - the general waste drop off hall - is where Guernsey's household and pre-sorted commercial and industrial waste arrives. Within this part of the facility, a JCB 437 wheeled loader is in operation. This machine is used to mix the waste on the floor to provide a consistent feedstock when loaded into the mechanical RDF shredder.

After the shredding process, the waste undergoes magnetic separation to remove both ferrous and non-ferrous metals for recycling before being fed into the baler which forms approximately 1m3 bales of material which is classified as refuse-derived fuel (RDF). The RDF bales are wrapped in plastic film and loaded onto shipping trailers using two JCB TLT35D machines fitted with paddle grab attachments. The bales are currently exported to the UK and onward to Sweden where they are used to generate heat and electricity. 

Recyclable glass is also delivered to the transfer station and stored in a bunker within the RDF processing hall. A JCB 541-70 is used to load this material into 40ft trailers for transport to a recycling facility in the UK. This machine also operates on the HWRC loading rigid plastics and UPVC window frames for transport to the UK. The bucket on the 541-70's shovel is fitted with a top clamp so, should the 437 - which operates in Hall 2 - require maintenance, the 541-70 has the ability to mix and load the general waste into the RDF shredder ensuring any processing downtime is minimised.

The facility is designed to process up to 26,000 tonnes of residual waste, which is expected to decrease as recycling levels increase.  It also has the capacity for 4,000 tonnes of food waste and 2,500 tonnes of glass. 

 JH Mahy & Sons, JCB's dealer partner on Guernsey, were successful in being selected through a competitive tender process to supply the JCB equipment for the new development.

Joe Adams, manager at the Longue Hougue site, said: “With Guernsey's landfill facilities close to being full, the new waste transfer station is strategically important in delivering Guernsey's waste strategy programme.

‘The facility will work hard and so we need materials handling equipment that we can rely on, with on-island back-up and support. JCB's renowned build quality and having an on-island dealer who was prepared to invest in training and new equipment were key drivers in our decision to invest in JCB products at the new site.'

David Banks, JCB's Sales Manager ' Waste and Recycling Sector, said: ‘This project highlights the confidence that JCB customers have in the JCB Wastemaster range of equipment when it comes to specifying machinery for large scale waste and recycling schemes across the UK and Europe.'