PA N E L D I S C U S S I O N
Maximise productivity on
LANDFILL SITES While the daily tonnage intake and the number of years left in a landfill’s life are important, the key issue on the minds of many solid waste agency managers is how the right equipment can help maximise landfill space.
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ith less than 10% of all general waste being recycled in South Africa, almost 100 million tonnes of municipal waste is dumped at hundreds of landfill sites across the country every year, according to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy. Jay Moodley, regional general manager at Babcock, explains that once full, many of these landfill sites will be used for building housing estates, malls, office blocks or other developments. Various processes and equipment are required to ensure the integrity of the ground for future building on these sites. Moodley says that Volvo articulated dump trucks (ADTs) are playing a pivotal role in this specialised process at four landfill sites in KwaZulu-Natal.
ADTs for DSW As part of its mandate to protect the environment and communities through safe waste management policies, eThekwini Municipality’s Durban Solid Waste (DSW) Department has invested in twenty-two 30 t Volvo ADTs for use at the landfill sites.
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DSW took delivery of eight A30G trucks in June 2021, with a further eight trucks delivered in October at an official handover ceremony. The rest of the trucks will be delivered early next year. Supplied by Babcock, the exclusive distributor of Volvo Construction Equipment in Southern Africa, the A30G dump trucks are being used as standard ADTs, water tankers and for the hoisting of skips with hook lifts. Moodley says that the 30 t Volvo ADTs are the ideal dump trucks for a landfill environment, as they are purpose-built for these types of conditions, have sufficient capacity for the volumes required to move for this application, and are easy to manoeuvre on roads as well as landfill sites. “Ensuring the future integrity of the landfill ground hinges on the quality and efficiency of the products and processes used,” Moodley points out. “While the equipment is just one element of the process to extend the life of a landfill site, using the right equipment and quality machinery to get the job done safely can prevent incorrect compaction, the development of manholes or the sinking of a compacted area when it may be used for building years later.”
Specialised applications In their simplest application for DSW, some of the Volvo A30G dump trucks are being used for hauling and moving waste within the landfill sites after being loaded by excavators or front-end loaders. Others have been modified as hook lifts to lift skips from waste removal trucks and transport these containers to be offloaded. “Garbage is brought to a drop-off zone by road trucks that cannot access landfill sites due to rubble and uneven dirt roads,” explains Moodley. “The skips are lifted on to the back of the ADT and transported to the landfill sites where they are then offloaded.” Babcock partnered with ETT – a company that specialises in professionally engineered special vehicle solutions for mobile industrial equipment – to undertake the modifications. ETT also assisted Babcock to convert some of the trucks to water tankers, which are necessary for watering down the dirt roads leading to the landfill sites to prevent dust from rising, keeping the air clear and watering down any contaminants. “The water tankers are also used to wash down the actual landfill area between compacting
