The view of Managing Director Richard Marquand on disposing of vegetable peelings / waste at F G Marquand & Son, the vegetable growers and processors of Callington, in Cornwall.
Says Richard "Only the best prepared onions go into Ginsters pasties and we process up to 35 tonnes of them every week. But depending on the quality ot the onions we are able to buy, this creates up to 12 tonnes of waste."
The starting situation
Until recently, all the onion skins and other waste (sometimes including whole onions that did not meet Marqand’s and Ginster’s high standards) were dropped into a bin at the end of the inspection conveyor and then taken manually to a large skip. It was this procedure that drew Richard Marquand’s comment at the start of this article. This procedure was indeed time consuming and messy and, due to the shape of onion skins, the skip could only hold 6-7 tonnes before it was full and had to be taken away by outside contractors.
The solution
The solution was the installation of a seepex BTM progressive cavity pump. This pump is a derivative of the seepex T series, a range of open hopper pumps with an auger feed screw prior to the rotor and stator, but with the feed screw being additionally fitted with rotating and stationary knives. These knives are a seepex patented design and proved very effective at macerating the onions prior to pumping.
The benefits
The BTM pump - which chops and pumps in a single action - pumps the waste to the skip, some 20 m away. Says Richard, "With the onions macerated, the waste contains virtually no air. Our skips can now take twice the amount they did previously. With skip collections halved, we are really delighted with the considerable cost savings."
