Water Supply and Utilities Companies

Water treatment works trickle filter bed
A 15m radius trickle filter bed with 3.6m depth of filter media contains slightly over 2,500m3 of plastic fill media which is around 64 tonnes of plastic. This would usually take 24 lorry loads to remove from site, but the BM Tech compactor can reduce this to 5 loads, significantly reducing CO2 emissions for transport.

You take your corporate social responsibility to protect the environment seriously and you are already committed to see materials being recycled at the end of their working life. Did you know that your trickle filter beds probably contain a large amount of plastic? Wouldn’t it be great to avoid landfill and recycle this plastic!

 

Waste plastic fill media
Waste plastic fill media used in cooling towers and trickle filter beds (the shovel helps to understand the scale)

Plastic fill media is a honeycomb type of structure used in water treatment works (and power station cooling towers). The honeycomb design creates a very large surface area. The media is often in large blocks, frequently described as “pack” or “fill”. Plastic fill media is made from either uPVC or, in more recent installations, Polypropylene.

 

The fill media has a working life of typically around 25 years. By the end of life, the pack material is heavily contaminated with solids blinding the voids. In the past this made it too hard to recycle and used material was sent to landfill.  BM Tech is able to recycle uPVC from plastic fill media, therefore supporting our client’s environmental requirements and helping to improve environmental target achievement by Reducing, Reusing and Recycling this material. No longer can Landfill and Energy from waste options for this kind of media be considered as best practice. Please call 07947 352934 to find out how we could help you. We would be delighted to discuss best practise ideas to ensure efficient operations.

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