Preserves manufacturer avoids sticky situation with Riverside waste baler

 

Manchester-based F. Duerrs & Sons (Duerrs) is a family run manufacturer of jams, marmalades, honey and peanut butter. For over 130 years the company has excelled in producing quality preserves renowned throughout the UK.

 

 

As with many manufacturing companies, especially in the grocery industry, Duerrs handles a large amount of dry recyclable packaging materials, predominantly cardboard. Acknowledging that this cardboard can be reused and is therefore not ‘waste’, the firm has used a baling press for many years, to compact the materials into manageable bales that can be sold on for recycling.

 

But Duerrs is a successful firm with an expanding product range and growing production capabilities. The firm’s cranberries for instance, are now delivered in large cardboard Octa boxes (850kg capacity) which are incredibly difficult to manage once empty.

 

Duerrs’ small Orwak baler could not physically handle such a bulky material type, so services manager Adrian Johnson set about researching the marketplace for a mill size machine. Adrian knew that bigger bales equalled more money for the company.

 

 

Armed with a clear list of criteria, Adrian’s extensive marketplace research and dialogue with industry peers/experts led him to the extensive Riverside Waste Machinery fleet of balers. Waste management consultancy Central Recycling recommended the RWM 500 and RWM 600 machines, which Adrian then went to see for himself.

 

Watching these two waste balers in action, he had utmost confidence in his investment, and proceeded to hire the machines for an 18 month period. Impressed by their ease of use, reliability and baling proficiency, Adrian then proceeded to purchase the two machines from Riverside in thereafter.

 

 

Now with the two Riverside waste balers in place, Duerrs handles on average 30 tonnes of cardboard packaging per month – the equivalent of four double-decker buses. Producing bales in the region of 400-480kg – nearly half a tonne – Duerrs now meets the preferred criteria of the larger recycling mills, and as a result receives a pleasing income stream due to the commodity value of this material.

 

Incredibly impressed with the Riverside balers, Adrian has actually calculated that a return on investment was achieved for both machines, in only 13 months.

 

He explains: “Our goal is to be as efficient as possible when it comes to recycling our packaging material. By baling as much cardboard as we can, we are supporting the country’s landfill diversion strategy, avoiding on-site storage issues and generating a great income stream from our ‘waste’.

 

“Our employees love how simple the machines are to operate – the wires can be fed in with no problems and the bales are easy to tie, creating a robust product for us to sell on.

 

“We’ve got a really good relationship with Riverside. Managing director Jonathan Oldfield is very knowledgeable and keen to please. We continually purchase consumables from the team and have had no problems whatsoever with product quality or delivery times. Our service contract also gives us peace of mind that the balers will continue to fulfil our operation expectations long into the future.”