Case Studies.

"This company has identified a clear gap in the market. It has enabled users of its service to reduce their volume of glass material produced by 80% with a very high quality of recyclable material output. Recyclability of the glass material stream has to give consideration to the noise produced and this new compact glass crushing machine tackles that highly effectively. The judges really appreciated that this simple idea has already attracted business from some of the biggest companies in the UK." National Recycling Awards judge

The robust and reliable Ekko glass crushing machine forms part of an innovative service business model designed to reduce glass storage space, logistics related CO2 and congestion by up to 80%.

Ekko Waste Solutions has crushed and processed over 20,000 tonnes of glass within outlets over the past 4 years, producing extensive evaluation which was used to develop the Ekko Glass Crusher. The result of significant R&D, Ekko Glass Crusher was launched into the market in August 2014 and variations were presented a month later at the Resources and Waste Management (RWM) international trade expo. Since then, the first batch of 65 units have been distributed to hotels, bars and clubs throughout the UK where they are being used on a daily basis by Ekko customers including Greene King, Mitchell & Butler, JD Wetherspoon, TGI Friday, Crowne Plaza, Network Rail and the G1 group. The Super Cullet produced by these machines has been collected and analysed by Viridor where it was found that 93.8% of the glass waste could be optically separated (into individual colours) and used in glass re-melt. As such Viridor and Recresco now accept Ekko Glass "Super cullet" into their depots across the UK.

A city centre pub can generate over 6,000 waste bottles per week, weighing 2 tonnes. Large Hotels can generate double this quantity. Put into context, using current collection methods, a large hotel fills and empties 80 standard sized (240litre) wheelie bins per week. Like most city centre businesses, they have little / no private storage which results in large numbers of bins being stored on the street. Residents face further environmental pollution through late night noise nuisance, congestion and CO2 caused by daily collections.

Winning "Innovation of the year" at the 2015 MRW National Recycling Awards has been a great boost for Ekko Waste Solutions, in addition to recognising our achievements on a national platform, the award has added credibility to our glass crushing equipment in the market place.
Brian Williamson, Managing Director, Ekko Glass

To put this into context, three Glass crushing machine crates which equate to three 140l wheelie bins take up just just 90cm of sturdy shelf space). The Ekko Glass Crusher provides a compact system for balancing the needs of the varied stakeholders. Locally, where the machine has most direct and immediate impact, establishments benefit from cutting both the amount of space and the number of glass waste collections required. Glass cullet takes approximately 80% less space than their pre-crush form and eliminates the social nuisance of pubs and clubs night time emptying of large numbers of bottles into industrial waste bins. Furthermore, crushed glass means less refuse uplifts, less refuse vehicles, less congestion and less fuel wasted!

Ekko have calculated that use of the Glass Crusher results in an overall saving on waste disposal costs as well as huge logistics related C02 savings. By reducing the volume of glass the Ekko system reduces vehicle movements through the logistics chain by a corresponding 80% reduction in pollution & congestion. It’s impossible to define an average ‘financial savings from use’, as each local authority has its own waste charges and bye laws. So instead of direct savings per customer, Ekko highlights additional benefits by the type and size of problems solved. These include the fact that:

• The Super Cullet produced is more valuable to industry. Viridor has analysed it and found that 93.8% of Ekko Glass Crusher cullet could be used in closed loop Glass re-melt recycling, which significantly increases tonnage diversion from aggregate / landfill.
• Every tonne of “Super Cullet” recovered saves 1.2 tonnes of raw materials being excavated for use in glass production, preserving natural resources.
• Every tonne of “Super Cullet” used in closed loop glass remelt saves 355kw of energy & 315kg of CO2 through reducing the heat required in glass furnaces.
• Noise from Glass Crusher peaks at approximately 70Db. Dropped glass creates 120Db.

If 10% of UK licenced premises installed the Ekko Glass Crusher system, the following annual benefits would be achieved:

• 156,000 tonnes of glass used in closed loop glass remelt
• 49,140,000 kg of CO2 saved during the recycling process
• 50,232,000 KW of energy saved during the recycling process
• 187,200 tonnes of raw materials saved.
• 48,000 wheelie removed from streets and lanes.