News in brief | CIWM Commercial Partner Updates

“Higher targets are something we have been calling for this year through our MP engagement work and this shows how we are affecting positive change for our sector.

“While we welcome this rise, however, we are a little disappointed by the scale of the increase. We believe that a minimum target of 45% would be more meaningful to drive investment in recycling and ensure that as much wood packaging as possible is reused or recycled in line with the waste hierarchy.” 

Updates 

NWS Annual Review 2022 to 2023 – Making nuclear waste permanently safe, sooner.

Nuclear Waste Services’ (NWS) vision and mission are vitally important to the UK today and for future generations. We’re here to make nuclear waste permanently safe, sooner, and our mission is to become the ‘one-stop shop’ for the management of nuclear waste in the UK.

NWS was formed in 2022, bringing together the best of the UK’s expertise in radioactive waste management. With a view of the full waste management cycle, our skilled workforce is developing new treatment technologies and services to overcome the challenges of managing and disposing of nuclear waste safely and securely.

We support the UK across many areas including the nuclear energy industry, defence, industrial users of radioactivity, and the public health sector.

On 26 October, NWS published its Annual Review for 2022 to 2023. This has been our first full year operating as NWS, and in this short time we’ve created momentum and delivered a huge amount:

• We’ve strengthened as the UK’s integrated expert nuclear waste management organisation. We’re building expertise at NWS and creating a culture and behaviours to optimise delivery, efficiencies, and value in all areas of operation.
• We’ve continued to safely operate the UK’s national Low-Level Waste Repository in Cumbria – with zero major safety incidents from 2022 to 2023. The continued safe, secure, and environmentally compliant operation of our repository is the foundation on which we build our mission.
• Progress was made with the UK’s Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) programme, with three communities across England currently engaged in the process and early site evaluation work well underway. NWS had also been engaging with the Allerdale community. Following a comprehensive evaluation of information NWS has taken the decision not to take Allerdale further in the siting process.
• The Integrated Waste Management Programme is helping to improve the management of radioactive waste by introducing new technologies and capabilities and enabling a more joined-up approach; and
• We have safely diverted huge volumes of nuclear waste away from disposal at our Low-Level Waste Repository site. This has been achieved through a range of characterisation and treatment services, ensuring that only wastes which require the protection of an engineered vault are disposed of at our site saving taxpayers millions of pounds. From 2022 to 2023, 1689te of metallic waste was treated with 98% released for recycling.

In a joint statement NWS Chair of the Board Adriènne Kelbie CBE and NWS CEO Corhyn Parr said:

“Our vision is clear – we’re here to make nuclear waste permanently safe, sooner. As a new organisation, we’ve seen some significant successes and progress. We’re delighted with our safety record, the progress we are making to deliver a Geological Disposal Facility, the innovations we are leading, and the value we’re adding.

“We’re particularly proud of how NWS is growing and strengthening – not only with world-class expertise but also by creating an inclusive culture where everyone has a role to play in achieving our vision.

“We are focused on doing the right thing for our people, partners, customers, and communities where we operate. We’re energised, excited, and ready to build on our progress, respond to challenges, and continue to deliver our mission.

“The UK has been producing and managing nuclear waste for many decades and will continue to do so for many more. Today, nuclear power is viewed by the UK Government as essential to the low-carbon energy mix and securing our energy supply in the future. The Welsh Government also supports nuclear new build. Therefore, the ability to safely manage and dispose of nuclear waste today and for future generations is crucial.

“We are a core part of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) group, which is responsible for keeping the UK’s former nuclear sites and facilities safe and secure as they are decommissioned.”

WasteRecruit “Revolutionises” industry recruitment with Innovative Assessment Solutions

With a focus on Sherbourne Recycling’s cutting-edge Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Coventry, WasteRecruit emerged as the exclusive recruitment partner, showcasing their commitment to redefining traditional hiring processes.

In a groundbreaking move, WasteRecruit not only conducted its renowned candidate searching and engagement but also introduced a fully customized assessment solution for every role within the Sherbourne Recycling operation. There was an emphasis on selecting Plant Operators from the local community, prioritizing values and behaviours over specific experience with equipment like shovel loaders, balers, or forklift trucks.

To achieve this objective, WasteRecruit developed a bespoke Situational Judgement Test (SJT), a first-of-its-kind tailored for the recycling and resource management sector. The SJT presented candidates with relevant scenarios, allowing them to choose from various behavioural options. This innovative approach enabled Sherbourne to eliminate the traditional CV-based recruitment process, resulting in a significantly expanded candidate pool.

Candidates who excelled in the SJT were invited for interviews, ultimately forming a team with minimal prior plant experience but possessing qualities such as conscientiousness, teamwork, a strong grasp of Health and Safety principles, and excellent communication skills. Not only were all vacant roles filled, but additional candidates were also employed in various roles within the facility.

Buoyed by this success, WasteRecruit is extending its revolutionary approach by developing an industry-specific SJT for Sales Executives. Recognizing the challenges of high turnover and identifying top performers in this role, WasteRecruit advocates for discarding traditional CV-based methods in favour of widening the candidate pool and identifying individuals with high potential, trainability, and the right values and behaviours.

Furthermore, WasteRecruit is expanding its suite of industry-specific assessments for drivers, technical assessors, and Director-level, and Senior Management positions. These off-the-shelf, industry-specific solutions are designed to address any situation and challenge, providing companies within the sector with a comprehensive understanding of candidates in terms of their behavioural fit and experience, ultimately leading to more informed recruitment decisions.

As the industry transforms, WasteRecruit is at the forefront, offering a range of assessment solutions to ensure companies have the right people to drive their businesses forward.

Ecomondo

Italian Exhibition Group’s international circular economy exhibition closed its 26th edition with 15% more attendance than in 2022 (a figure that is even more significant since, last year, it took place at the same time as KEY Energy Transition Expo, which has now earned its own calendar slot).

150,000 square metres for more than 1,500 exhibiting brands, up 10% compared to last year, for four extremely intense days of business and networking. Digital participation through the b2b GreentechInsights platform was also greater, with 600,000 exhibitor profile viewings.

Decarbonising is worth it

From regenerative bio-economy to blue economy, from waste as a resource to soil restoration, from bioenergy to environmental monitoring: the largest edition in 26 years gave a clear signal: circularity technologies are ready to regenerate ecosystems and are profitable when combined with decarbonisation-oriented policies.

Also on show were the latest environmentally friendly vehicles in the biennial SAL.VE exhibition organised with ANFIA. Besides the content on display in the Rimini Expo Centre halls, green is also confirmed as profitable for the economy in the report “The economy of tomorrow: a decarbonised, circular and regenerative green economy” presented at the opening of the States General of the Green Economy 2023.

Benefits of 689 billion euros over a ten-year period are estimated against cumulative costs of 136.7 billion from the “Fit for 55” European decarbonisation regulatory package alone. ECOMONDO, INTERNATIONAL PLATFORM Ecomondo’s foreign visitors come from an increasing number of countries, mainly from the Euro-Mediterranean area, with Spain, Germany, Greece, Serbia, Egypt and Tunisia in the lead, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa.

Over 630 international foreign operators were hosted thanks to the collaboration of ITA – Italian Trade Agency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, IEG’s global network of regional advisors and also the Emilia-Romagna Region, particularly for the Blue Economy sector, coming from North and Sub-Saharan Africa, the Balkan area, Latin America, North America, India and the Middle East, generating an overall total of 2,700 business matchings.

Ecomondo, an innovator hub

Start-ups and Scale-ups, are essential ingredients at Ecomondo. This year, an award named after Lorenzo Cagnoni was launched for consolidated and emerging innovators in the ecosystem of Italian green companies. The podium was taken by Eco Reciclyng from Viterbo, HBI from Treviso, and the global brand AMP Robotics while the three winning start-ups were 3Bee from Milan, Oxoco from Bari and Mixcycling from Vicenza.

The companies and public administrations most committed to eco-innovation were honoured with the Sustainable Development Award promoted by the Sustainable Development Foundation and Ecomondo.

Environment Minister Pichetto Fratin: Ecomondo is a national flagship

The inaugural day was attended by Minister for the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, who toured the exhibition area with IEG Chairman Maurizio Ermeti, CEO Corrado Peraboni and Global Exhibition Director, Alessandra Astrolfi. In his opinion, Ecomondo has gone from a pioneering model to a national flagship.

Francesco Corvaro, the Italian Government’s Special Envoy for Climate Change at COP28; the President of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Stefano Bonaccini, and Rimini Councillor for Ecological Transition, Anna Montini, were also in attendance.

During the four-day event, Ecomondo’s guests included Vice Minister for the Environment and Energy Security, Vannia Gava, the Undersecretary to the Ministry for the Environment and Energy Security, Claudio Barbaro, the Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council, Alessandro Morelli, and the Undersecretary to the Interior, Emanuele Prisco, members of the Ecoreati parliamentary Commission, the President of the Campania Region, Vincenzo De Luca, and Michele Emiliano from the Apulia Region.

The supply chain consortia and business associations, the event’s historical partners, starting with CONAI, Utilitalia, Assoambiente and Confindustria, together with the European Commission, OECD, FAO, UfM, EEA and ISWA, coordinated by the event’s technical-scientific committee headed by Professor Fabio Fava from Bologna University, make Ecomondo the community catalyst of reference in the Euro-Mediterranean area with a calendar of over 240 events.

Opinion

The right nozzle knowledge

Nozzles are one of the most valuable consumables used when cleaning sewers and pipes.

Using the wrong nozzles can put the operator at risk, damage drains and be costly if lost. Operating without the correct nozzle is not only ineffective and wasteful of resources like fuel, water and operator time, but it can also damage the sewer cleaning vehicle and/or the city’s infrastructure, resulting in hefty fines that are passed on to the operator.

In the worst-case scenario, the operator can get severely injured when the wrong nozzle wreaks havoc on site. Therefore, selecting the right nozzle is imperative. 

Each nozzle performs a specific cleaning task, so using just one nozzle is rarely enough to complete a cleaning job successfully. Because conditions change as you clean, you should change nozzles throughout the process.

Three things decide how effective your cleaning job will be and how many resources you will need to complete the job – the nozzle, the hose and the pump. If these things are in sync, you will lower your RPM on the truck and save fuel without lowering the water pressure out of the nozzle, a saving you can put directly in your pocket while doing something good for the environment.

With the sheer number of nozzles available for your Bucher unit, where do you start? 

Forward-facing jetting nozzles are perfect for routine cleaning. 

They are good for cleaning pipes after blockages have been removed to make sure nothing is left behind or they can be used to remove smaller amounts of sludge and deposits.

Blockages such as grease, oil, rag, soap, roots and residual deposits can be dealt with by using rotating nozzles. The water jets use a cutting motion rather than flushing, the spinning jets of water act like a knife spinning around the pipe to cut through the deposit and break it up into smaller pieces to be flushed away. This is needed if combating something such as root mass – a flushing stream would just bend the roots as opposed to slicing.

For a more effective spinning nozzle, the bulldog anti-blast should be favoured. The head of this nozzle rotates, and as it spins, cuts away fat, grease, roots, etc. Where this nozzle outperforms is when cleaning close to houses; the chance of blowback is removed.

This is possible by eliminating pressure equalisation so there isn’t a flood of water coming up into people’s homes. It is a very low-maintenance nozzle because it uses magnets instead of oil or clutch breaking. This means it won’t break as easily and won’t need servicing, just a clean. 

If pipes are blocked from thick organic matter or deposits are harder than expected, a tougher approach is usually recommended such as chains on rotating nozzles or chain flail. With a chain flail, the body of the nozzle sits tight to the pipe and the chain spins round and round, this motion plus the powerful chains means that the nozzle can get through entire root masses, limescale and cement wash.

If you want to de-silt by removing loose gravel, rocks, sand and soft deposits, a grenade bomb nozzle is recommended. This nozzle sits at the bottom of the pipe and powerfully flushes sewer lines backwards to clear all the small deposits.

To open lines or fully blocked drains, a pointed nozzle is best. This nozzle is angled at the front to penetrate completely blocked pipes. It can make an opening through interlaced roots and frozen pipes. If the obstruction is much harder such as solidified concrete or a massive build-up of limescale due to neglect, then a milling cutter nozzle is recommended. The front of these nozzles have discs that contain carbide or diamond teeth that cut the obstruction away as it spins.

Solidified blockages that aren’t completely blocking the pipes can be combated by using vibrating nozzles. These sit on top of the deposit and break it up by bouncing rapidly. This motion breaks up the surface of the obstruction to enable it to be sent back on the jets of water to be sucked up by the operator. 

Cutting ball nozzles can also be used against these harsher blockages. These nozzles are a golden steel globe the size of a cricket ball that spins. They have undercut razor-sharp channels that shave away whatever is on the pipe, such as cement residue, roots or limescale. There is also the option to make it vibrate to give it an additional advantage. 

 For the cleaning of flat-bottomed drains (such as beany blocks), a flounder nozzle should be used. This nozzle sits on the flat bottom of the drain and glides along seamlessly. It is particularly effective for the removal of mud and loose rubble that is commonly found in kerbside drains.

Similarly, if a slot drain needs to be cleaned, a drainage channel nozzle is the perfect solution. It cleans effectively by gliding along the bottom, but the water flows straight backwards, so it doesn’t shoot up the drains above.

For large pipes (anything over 300mm), such as culverts, a scraper is used. These are very heavy, large nozzles. The weight keeps the nozzle on the bottom of the pipe with huge powerful jets that dislodge heavy or large debris like house bricks and even shopping trolleys. 

Ejector nozzles are used for pipes full of water when a higher flow rate is needed. Due to utilising something called the venturi effect, the nozzle can increase the flow rate of the water passing through by 500%.

This nozzle sits underneath the water line to work to its full capacity; it has a large aperture hole in the front with rear-facing water jets that draw in the water, and by having the water pass through a tight tube, the flow rate increase is so powerful that a 300l/min pump can turn into 1500 l/min. This effect is only capable when the nozzle is fully submerged, or it will only be as powerful as an ordinary nozzle.

Guiding nozzles are designed to travel more easily through connections in pipes and directional changes in pipes where there may be a split. Directional jets are used to change the direction of the nozzle one way or another. However, a camera is needed to successfully guide the nozzle to the new pathway as otherwise it cannot be seen in the sewer.

Having the correct nozzle for the correct application reduces the likelihood of structural damage to property and pipework. It also reduces the risk of operator injury, especially when implementing safety features such as safety liner extensions.

These nozzle extensions are hollow solid bars that elongate the nozzle to remove the possibility of the nozzle turning in the pipe. Nozzles turning in the sewer are the most likely cause of operator injury and fatality. The safety liner elongates the nozzles along the hose, making it too long for turning in the pipe but without impeding performance.

All the nozzles we sell at Bucher Municipal are of the highest quality. The partnership between Bucher Municipal and enz nozzles means that you will have the most efficient workday, cleaning sewers in one pass. 

Speak to the Bucher Sewer Cleaning service team to find out more about how you can optimise your machine with the right nozzle-hose-pump combination.