Each inhabitant of the planet produces 1 kg of waste daily, up to a ton per year. To store such a quantity of waste you will need strong and durable containers. Buried waste containers are becoming in demand.
Danger of garbage
MSW (municipal solid waste) is objects of human activity that are obsolete or have lost their characteristics over time. They are divided into biological, synthetic, petroleum products and metals. In Russia, 65 million tons of household waste are produced annually, about 400 kg per person.
Collection of solid waste and its transformation requires a large number of waste containers, systems and processing plants. Due to the lack of development of the recycling industry in Russia, a large amount of waste is not processed, but is buried and remains in the ground. This is gradually killing the biosphere and poses a danger to society.
Disadvantages of solid waste:
- poisoning of water, air, soil;
- release of heavy metal vapors;
- increased development of infection and bacteria;
- reproduction of animals carrying viruses;
- progression of respiratory diseases;
- poisoning of fauna.
With uncontrolled release of solid waste and lack of recycling, waste damages the surrounding ecology and negatively affects people's lives.
Why regular trash cans are obsolete
Metal containers for waste, common in the CIS and Russia, are already becoming obsolete and cannot cope with the amount of raw materials produced. Due to the aggressive environment of internal products, conventional waste containers are quickly corroded. This significantly reduces their service life to several years.
As waste volumes increase, more metal bins are required, which take up valuable space, especially in large cities. If there is not enough space or containers are not cleaned in a timely manner, waste is simply dumped on the ground near trash bins, polluting the environment and air.
The tanks also do not retain odors and harmful fumes and are difficult to process to maintain sanitation. In addition, outwardly they look unpresentable.
What to replace
Above-ground landfills in Europe and developed Russian cities are being upgraded to underground garbage bins. These structures are durable and strong.
In-ground waste containers are waste collection structures developed in 1991 in Finland. The structure resembles a frame well, more than half of which is located underground, and only 1/3 remains on the surface.
Underground garbage containers are designed for collecting and storing solid household waste in crowded areas. Once filled, the contents are removed using special garbage trucks.
Internal configuration of containers
The design consists of a seamless container that prevents waste from leaking into the ground. The underground tank has a 10-year warranty.
Inside there are in-ground garbage container bags made of polypropylene. They are two-layer and dense, the warranty period is 3 years. Mounted on a traverse (lifting mechanism). It allows you to quickly replace garbage bags.
There is a lid on top that prevents the penetration of odors into the environment and protects against animals (rats, mice).
Advantages and disadvantages of containers
Such an innovative design has pros and cons, which is why people’s opinions about such a structure are divided.
Underground trash is becoming more and more common in cities due to its advantages:
- Low corrosion due to propylene in the composition.
- Durability. Underground garbage cans last for several decades, when the life of conventional garbage containers is 1–5 years.
- Resistance to sudden changes in environmental conditions. Therefore, containers are placed in hot countries and in places with extremely low temperatures. They can withstand heating up to 200 degrees.
- Space saving. One underground tank replaces 7 metal or 5 Euro containers. The remaining space is used for the construction of playgrounds and parking spaces.
- The risk of garbage fire is minimal, but at the request of customers it is possible to equip the underground tank with an automatic fire extinguishing system.
- Constant temperature prevents waste from freezing or sticking together, which makes unloading difficult.
- Aesthetics. The containers have a nice appearance compared to trash cans. They are also made in different colors and will harmonize with the surrounding view.
The only disadvantage of such tanks is their high cost.
Recessed waste containers reduce the amount of waste and emissions of harmful substances. Such underground tanks protect the environment and make an invaluable contribution to the protection of the Earth's biosphere.
Purchasing a buried container for solid waste is a wise and practical decision. By choosing an underground waste storage system, you get the following benefits:
- reduction of transport costs;
- durability and long service life of the container;
- increasing the volume of solid waste storage at the existing waste site without exceeding its existing dimensions;
- no need to install components required for container sites: fences around the waste bin and canopies;
- no spread of odors;
- eliminating such risks as heavy lids, sharp corners, wheel breakage and the appearance of puddles from waste with an unpleasant odor;
- 100% unloading of garbage from the container at any time of the year;
- attractive and aesthetic design.
The design is a “glass” with a hermetically sealed lid. Height including cover - 3,06 meters and diameter 2,0 meters. After installation (recessed), the visible part with the cover is 1,46 meters. The window for garbage bags is located at a level of 1.0 meters. Produced in various colors, based on customer requests.
Recessed containers for solid waste are not afraid of almost any weather conditions! Thanks to the presence of a sealed lid, precipitation is prevented from getting inside. It is resistant to vandalism and prevents spillage and scattering of debris. The content is inaccessible to both animals and unfavorable social elements.
An underground waste storage system ensures waste storage at low temperatures. Due to the fact that the contents are compacted under their own weight, the decay process slows down and unfavorable odors are reduced. In summer, at high temperatures, bacterial growth decreases. In winter, at frosts and low temperatures, there is no icing of waste.
To accumulate and store garbage, a special durable bag is used, which allows you to extract and unload the contents using a garbage truck with a crane in a matter of minutes. The process of emptying the container from accumulated waste is simple and absolutely safe: there are no sharp corners and puddles of waste, problems with wheel breakage are eliminated, and the plastic lid does not have much weight. In addition, the boom reach of the loader crane reaches 11 meters, which ensures independence of the garbage truck from parked cars when operating. The bag also protects the buried container itself from debris, eliminating the need to clean the bottom.
Fig.3 Unloading waste from a recessed container “ECO 5000”, type “eco”
And of course, one of the main factors in choosing a buried container for solid waste is its efficiency! The vertical design allows you to significantly free up and expand the space occupied by ground containers, since with a vertical design the capacity is 5 m3, and the occupied area is only 2 m3. In other words, one in-ground container is equal in volume to 5 above-ground containers of 1100 liters. Thus, additional free space opens up in residential courtyards for parking cars, placing children's and sports grounds, as well as flower beds and flower beds.
Life does not stand still, something is constantly developing and improving.
People began to fly into space, phones can replace large computers, the Mars rover takes pictures of itself on Mars, but they can’t solve the problem with garbage.
Remember what kind of tanks are located near your house, and what kind of stench you can smell.
Maybe the situation in the capital is a little better, but in the regions it’s definitely not fantastic.
Let's look at the underground waste storage facilities that I use abroad.
We have a lot to learn.
02. What to do about it? All trash cans must be placed underground. There should be no disgusting dirty containers! There are several types of underground waste collection systems. This one is the simplest. Conventional bins are lowered down on a lift, and only a garbage receptacle remains on top, similar to a conventional garbage chute.
When the car arrives, the containers are lifted and emptied. It looks something like this:
03. Everything is clean and tidy from above.
04. Nothing smells, nothing flows along the roads and nothing rots in the sun.
05. There are different types of receptacles, such as for glass, paper or household waste.
06. This is what the containers look like together.
07. So they rise.
08. The next system is more complicated, but better. Here the receiver and tank are a single unit. The advantages are obvious - the system is completely sealed. It is faster to service - no need to push the tanks in, nothing falls out. And most importantly, it is many times more spacious than one tank. Depending on the size, such an underground tank can be up to 5 times more spacious than a regular container. This means that you can take out garbage less often.
The container can be large - the garbage is automatically compacted there.
10. Access to tanks can be made using cards so that only residents of the house can use them. This is necessary in cases where garbage removal is paid and residents do not want to pay extra.
11. But the coolest thing is the district vacuum garbage chute! I dream of building one like this in Shchukino!
12. The horizontal system works on the principle of pneumatic mail. Garbage can be compacted in bins and flown into storage. All garbage cans in the area can be connected to such a system. Beauty. The garbage automatically goes to a distribution point, from where it is taken to landfills. You can also connect existing garbage disposals in homes to this system. The vacuum system requires serious investment - about 500 million rubles for 10,000 apartments, but it pays for itself in 30 years, since there is no need to maintain hundreds of garbage cans every day.
Details Created 05/18/2013 05:40
At the end of 2010, recently installed buried containers in the Solnechny microdistrict were closed in Irkutsk. The old metal tanks were reinstalled in front of the modern container yard. And the picture became familiar again: torn bags, garbage and stray dogs.
In total, as part of the experiment, the authorities installed about fifteen buried containers in Solnechny. According to Deputy Mayor of Irkutsk Dmitry Razumov, the management company on whose territory the containers are located entered into a waste removal agreement with a private enterprise that does not have the appropriate equipment to service the new bins. Therefore, it was decided to preserve them.
A similar story happened in the north of Moscow. Next to the brand new round tanks there are also hastily painted old metal tanks. In total, more than 3,000 buried containers have already been installed in the capital, and a significant part of them are not properly maintained. Residents of the northern district of the capital have been inundating representatives of the prefecture with letters of complaint for almost a year to no avail.
Why do such situations arise?
The underground waste collection system is widely used throughout the world, and extensive experience in its operation has been accumulated. But, apparently, when introducing fashionable Western technology, utility companies do not always take into account an important rule. In order for the technology to work, its implementation must be ensured by the correct technology and equipment, correspond to the current state of the market and the consumer’s worldview, and most importantly, all technological requirements for installing equipment must be strictly observed.
A system for storing waste in containers partially hidden underground was developed in Finland more than 20 years ago. By that time, separate waste collection technologies were already being actively used in this country, and the market was developing towards reducing waste removal costs. The main arguments in favor of this method included saving space for the site, its appearance, and most importantly, the ability to remove garbage less frequently. For Finland, a country with a low population density, this system was perfectly suited. It is unprofitable to remove waste from sites scattered over large areas every day. A buried container allows waste to be accumulated for several days and certain types of waste to be removed as they accumulate. For non-perishable fractions - glass, plastic - large containers are installed; they can rarely be taken out. For solid waste - smaller containers for more frequent emptying. At the same time, household waste does not deteriorate as quickly as in a regular trash can. The container is tightly closed with a lid, and the temperature underground is much lower. In addition, the Finnish open spaces allow a vehicle with a long crane to freely approach the container (only such equipment can work with buried tanks).
Later the technology spread in central and southern Europe. Underground tanks are installed at remote gas stations, in pedestrian and park areas, and in squares. Where the garbage does not need to be removed every day, and its composition is lighter. These are mainly plastic and glass bottles, pieces of paper: everything that can be thrown away simply by passing by.
In Russia, underground containers are used in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Irkutsk, Omsk, Izhevsk, Voronezh, Murmansk and other cities. European technology in our country was immediately reshaped in a new way and they began to install recessed containers in the residential sector, in multi-storey buildings. Moreover, one underground container is installed instead of 5-6 usual ones, which means that garbage will have to be removed from it again every day. There can be no talk of any time savings. While loading a conventional 1.1 m3 Eurotank using a modern lifting device will take about 20 seconds, emptying a 5 cc bag from an underground tank is not a quick task. The operator needs to move the CMU from the transport position to the working position, extend the outriggers or hydraulic supports, pick up the bag, empty it, and then do all these operations in the reverse order. All this time, most likely, the garbage truck will interfere with the passage of cars, bicycles and strollers.
It is worth paying special attention to the fact that recessed containers are designed specifically for lightweight waste. On average, according to European experience, a fully filled 5-cubic bag should weigh no more than 400 kg. Russian practice shows that, when filled with heavy household waste, such a bag weighs about a ton. This entails increased requirements for container materials and equipment that will serve it. The bag must have an appropriate safety margin, and the crane boom must have a load capacity (at least 1000 kg at maximum reach). Otherwise, the bags will constantly tear, garbage will spill out, and equipment will fail. The most important performance characteristics of the CMU include the length of the boom. It should be sufficient to reach the container when it is impossible to drive close to the site due to the many cars parked around it. Many problems can also be caused by improper installation and the use of structural elements that do not comply with the technology. For example, in some cases, instead of a sealed plastic or concrete capsule, container bags are placed in containers made from ordinary concrete rings for country wells and are constantly flooded with groundwater. And the bags themselves, in order to reduce costs, are often not made from original high-strength materials, as a result of which they cannot withstand the loads placed on them.
In Moscow, new containers also suffer from a lack of parking spaces. Recessed container sites, in accordance with the concept of saving space in cramped Moscow courtyards, do not have a protective fence. In one of these yards, an inexperienced driver, trying to win a piece of parking for himself, damaged an expensive container, after which its use became impossible. There is no budget for replacing the container, and it turns into a local “unauthorized dump” for a long time. The remaining containers are also constantly overflowing.
The method of removing waste from buried containers using small flatbed trucks with a manipulator is also common. Such a machine can serve only 1-2 container sites, after which it must go to the disposal site. It is impossible to reload garbage from such a vehicle into a larger garbage truck within the city without auxiliary equipment. The cost of removing one container in this way is very high, and all these costs naturally fall on the consumer.
An example of a correct and reasonable approach is the Tomsk enterprise MUP “Spetsavtohozyaystvo”. The company installed a trial site with buried containers and immediately purchased a special machine for its maintenance - a Zoeller Medium series garbage truck on a Scania chassis with rear loading, a crane-manipulator installation and a lifting device for Euro-containers. This machine is universal. It can load waste not only from underground tanks, but also from ordinary tanks and quickly pays off the investment. Long service intervals, absence of unscheduled downtime due to breakdowns, low fuel consumption of imported chassis - all this saves money for both the waste collection company and consumers of services.
The volume of the Zoeller Medium XL body is eighteen cubic meters. This means that with a compaction ratio of 1:6, its hopper will hold 108,000 liters of waste. And this is approximately 22 buried containers with a volume of 5 m3. Typically such a machine runs two schedules per day. That is, it will serve up to 44 containers per day and will only go to the landfill twice. A small machine will load 44 containers in 22 steps, but physically cannot go to the disposal site 22 times, that is, at least four such machines will be needed.
Now let's compare the costs. A small car spends about 20 liters of gasoline per 100 km. The big one is 50. But four small cars already consume 80 liters per 100 km. Given that the landfill is 25 km away from the city, they will cover at least 300 km per day, and the Zoeller garbage truck no more than 150. In addition, these four vehicles need to be bought, maintained, serviced, and even paid to 8 personnel instead of 2. According to the manufacturers of this vehicle, the Moscow region company RG-Techno, the Zoeller garbage truck with CMU is the optimal solution for servicing buried containers. The machine can operate in any region of Russia: the hydraulic system operates stably at temperatures from -50°C to +50°C. The safety margin of the body and the pressing mechanism even allows loading of heavy goods vehicles. The main design feature of the machine is the combined loading device. If an organization services different types of containers and sites, such versatility will allow significant savings on logistics. An additional hydraulically controlled special receiver increases the capacity of the receiving hopper to 5 m3. This means that the contents of a 5 cubic meter bag can be easily unloaded without spilling garbage.
Now the municipal unitary enterprise "Spetsavtohozyaystvo" continues to introduce new waste collection technology. While using the trial container site, Tomsk utility workers identified another difficulty: the small size of the hatches does not allow throwing large bags of garbage into the tank. After all, the standard European design is intended for small portions of pre-sorted waste. But at subsequent sites tanks with a larger loading opening were installed, and this problem was solved.
The company’s specialists, together with the city authorities, chose the right tactics. In Tomsk, buried containers will be installed primarily not in the courtyards of residential buildings, but in public places - in parks, boulevards and squares. Spetsavtohozyaystvo plans to purchase from RG-Techno another universal Zoeller garbage truck with a CMU with a larger body capacity.
Practice shows that even if a technology that has been proven over the years is borrowed, it must be correctly adapted to existing realities. Companies and municipalities that are just about to start installing and servicing in-ground containers already have something to rely on. Their colleagues in the regions of Russia have already accumulated some experience, both positive and negative, which can be taken into account and similar mistakes can be prevented.
OPINION.Roman Lobov, executive director of RG-Techno LLC:
In my opinion, one cannot say that the underground waste storage system is bad or unsuitable for our country, based only on the unsuccessful experiences of some cities and companies. Europeans are very rational. The fact that this technology is constantly developing in Europe indicates that it has a right to exist if it is applied specifically, where it is appropriate.
Our clients often turn to us for advice when they are planning to expand the range of their services: installing and maintaining in-ground containers. We try to help them choose the right direction, master a new market segment with maximum efficiency for themselves and for their clients. We pass on to them not only our knowledge, but also the wide capabilities of our technology, which is backed by 65 years of experience in waste management in Europe. The Zoeller garbage truck models that we offer in Russia meet the highest requirements and are maximally adapted for use in our country.
Now for one of our clients we have developed a new machine for servicing Euro containers and underground bunkers. The crane-manipulator installation of this garbage truck is mounted not behind the cabin, but on the roof of the body. This allowed us to reduce the cost of the design, reduce the time it takes to bring the crane boom into working position and increase the volume of the body to 21.5 m3. Another important point: the center of rotation of the CMU is shifted towards the rear. This means that even when it is difficult to get to the location of the container, the reach of the crane boom is not 12, but only 7.5 m. We encourage our clients not to be afraid of the new. Market leadership often depends on who is the first to occupy a new niche. The main thing is to choose the right approach and the most effective and reliable technology to achieve the goal.
Every day, tons of garbage accumulate in megacities, small towns and other populated areas. Street garbage containers and bins located near institutions and residential buildings quickly fill up. They emit an unpleasant odor and spoil the appearance of the landscape, attract rodents and insects, becoming sources of dangerous diseases. What solutions exist today? A breakthrough in waste disposal technology was the underground waste collection system developed by Villiger from Switzerland.
How is waste stored and collected in underground containers?
The Swiss company Villiger presented a conceptual solution for waste disposal. These are underground containers that are hermetically connected to waste receptacles located on the surface. Waste containers are lowered into and out of the shaft using a hydraulic lift. When they are full, they are removed using the TER SPA series control panel, loaded onto a garbage truck and transported to a waste recycling facility.
Underground container systems are airtight, take up little space and hold 5-7 times more waste than traditional trash cans. Above-ground garbage receptacles fit organically into the urban landscape, do not emit a stench, and there is no falling garbage around them. The tanks do not need to be opened or moved while the contents are being shipped, making maintenance as simple and cost-effective as possible. Access to them is carried out using cards, and its owner pays only for what he threw away.
Villiger underground disposal systems are versatile and practical due to the fact that they are fully automated. They are convenient to use, even if you need to ship household waste or construction waste directly from the back of a truck. It is enough to pay for the shipment with a card, after which the platform with a hydraulic lift rises, making it possible to unload the waste into the waste collection chamber.
Why are underground garbage disposals convenient?
Underground waste disposal systems are a versatile and cost-effective solution.
- The large capacity of the containers allows you to store a large amount of waste in a small area.
- There can be several garbage collectors; depending on the amount of garbage on the site, up to 5 containers are installed.
- The storage facility is suitable for different types of waste: organic waste, paper, cardboard, PET containers and textiles.
- The waste does not harm people and the environment, which confirms the environmental friendliness of the storage system.
- The storage is hygienic, it is impossible that a bird, rodent or pet will accidentally get into the garbage receptacle.
- The garbage disposal is easy to use, and its configuration does not spoil the urban landscape.
The storage facilities are sealed and protected from accidental ingress of moisture and precipitation, so they last longer and the garbage in them does not decompose.
The containers are safe to use and maintain. Their lid is light and has no sharp corners. The locking mechanism ensures maximum fire safety of the contents and prevents spillage.
If you buy a container for underground storage and waste disposal, the costs will quickly pay off. Why? Due to the large volume tanks, which allows not only to store a large volume of garbage, but also to increase the interval for its removal.
Separate waste storage - how does it work?
With an underground storage system, the problem of separate waste collection is easily solved, which significantly improves the environmental situation in megacities and small towns. Its shape and appearance fits well into the urban environment and improves the appearance of residential and industrial areas.
To summarize, we suggest watching a video of such a system in action:
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