AU704395B2

AU704395B2 - A refuse collecting system

Info

Publication number: AU704395B2
Application number: AU30665/95A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Bruce Lane; Graeme Missen; Burt Morales; Mark Roberts
Original assignee: BRIMBANK CITY COUNCIL; Marlo Pines Pty Ltd
Current assignee: BRIMBANK CITY COUNCIL; Marlo Pines Pty Ltd
Priority date: 1994-09-15
Filing date: 1995-09-14
Publication date: 1999-04-22
Anticipated expiration: 2015-09-14
Also published as: AU3066595A

Description

Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT

(ORIGINAL)

Name of Applicant: BRIMBANK CITY COUNCIL and MARLO PINES PTY.LTD.

o r r o r i I r r D e r s Actual Inventor(s): Address for Service: Invention Title: DAVIES COLLISON CAVE, Patent Attorneys, 1 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, 3000.

"A Refuse Collecting System" Details of Associated Provisional Application(s): No(s): PM8191/94 filed 15 September, 1994 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us: -1- A REFUSE COLLECING SYSTEM The present ilnvention relates to a system of collecting refuse.

It has been previously proposed to collect household refuse or garbage left in bins at a roadside kerb by way of a municipal worker gathering each bin and emptying it into a hopper at the rear of a garbage truck, or byway of the garbage truck driver actuating arms mounted on the truck to grasp each bin and to empty it into the garbage truck. When the garbage truck was fully laden, it was driven to a land-fill site located within the municipality and dumped. This method has the disadvantage that each garbage truck is required to travel quite a distance many times on any given collection day to and from the land-fill site at which the refuse is to be dumped.

As land-fill sites in urban areas have progressively filled in recent years and therefore become no longer available for the dumping of garbage, the distances to S 20 be travelled from collection points within a municipality to land-fill sites beyond the S particular municipality have led to the concept of emptying loose garbage from garbage trucks directly into an opcu-topped bin carried on a flat bed truck or semitrailer for subsequent transport to the land-fill site beyond the municipality. This method has the disadvantage that the bin must be quite large in order to accommodate enough loose refuse to make each trip to the land-fill site economic.

Further, a tarpaulin must be lashed over the open top of each large bin to prevent refuse from falling from the bin when it is in transit, which is generally inconvenient.

It has also been previously proposed to construct a transfer station within a municipality for compacting the loose garbage gathered by the garbage trucks and then transferring the compacted garbage into larger semi-trailers which, in turn, transport the compacted garbage over the longer distances to the land-fill site beyond 950913,p:\oper\mab,refus.cap,2 the municipality. Such a transfer station generally comprises a substantial building having an elongate push pit into which the garbage trucks discharge their loads of loose refuse.

A pusher ram arranged at one lengthwise end of the pit pushes the loose refuse along the length of the pit against an opposed wall, and another ram which operates in a direction normal to the pusher ram forces the compacted refuse through a hole in a side wall of the pit into an open end of a closed transfer trailer coupled to the push pit. When the trailer is fully laden, a rear door of the trailer is closed and the compacted refuse is taken to the land-fill site where it is dumped from the trailer by way of a pusher blade mounted within the trailer.

Although the use of transfer stations has resulted in significant savings in transport costs, the costs associated with the construction and on-going operation of a transfer station are extremely high. Indeed for many operators the cost of constructing a transfer station is prohibitive. Further, each garbage truck must still travel to and from the transfer station from various points within the municipality many times on any given collection day which results in poor utilisation of the garbage trucks and high travelling costs being incurred.

SAccording to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a refuse collecting system comprising a plurality of refuse loading stations, a wheeled temporary storage vehicle including means for compacting refuse stored therein, said temporary storage vehicle being located at any selected one of the loading stations, and one or more refuse collector vehicles, the or each collector vehicle being drivable into a said loading station at which the temporary storage vehicle is temporarily located to thereby deposit 25 refuse into the storage vehicle and the storage vehicle then being operable to compact refuse therein by operation of the compacting means, and said storage vehicle being removable from the loading station for subsequent discharge of the compacted refuse at a remote location, wherein each loading station has a lower level at which the storage vehicle can be positioned, and an upper level onto which the collector vehicle can be driven such that refuse can be emptied from the collector vehicle directly into the storage vehicle at the lower level In a preferred form, the compacted refuse is ejected from the temporary storage vehicle by the said means for compacting the load of refuse.

299 216l, p iip ur rshli.iluu .pii1.

3 -4- Preferably, the temporary storage vehicle comprises a container having an opening at one end portion thereof for receiving refuse from the collector vehicle and another opening at an end opposite said one end through which compacted refuse can be ejected, said other opening being closable, and the compacting mrneans is actuable to push the refuse towards a wall at said opposite end of the container whereby it is compacted. This enables the compacting means to act to compact the refuse and to also eject the compacted refuse through said other opening when the refuse is to be dumped at the refuse dumping location.

It is preferred that the first opening is at the top end of the container so that refuse can be simply tipped from the collector vehicle into the container under the effect of gravity, and that the wall at said opposite end of the container constitutes said the closure for said other opening to simplify the construction of the container.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a refuse collecting system comprising a wheeled transportable refuse compacting and storage container including an upper opening into which refuse can be discharged from a collector vehicle and compacting means for compacting refuse within the container, and a plurality of S* loading ramps located at different locations, the storage container being locatable on the ground adjacent any selected one of the ramps such that a collector vehicle can be driven onto the ramp so as to be above ground level and can then discharge refuse downwardly into the adjacent compacting and storage container through the upper opening therein, said S.storage container removable from the vicinity of the ramp for subsequent discharage of compacted refuse at a remote location.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided a refuse compacting and storage vehicle for use in a refuse collecting system as defined above, said vehicle being a wheeled vehicle comprising a container for receiving refuse from a collector vehicle, means for compacting refuse within the container, and a discharge opening through which compacted refuse can be discharged from the container.

The invention will now be further described, by way of exanmple only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: 9902116b.p: opur rsh, Musue cp-I

L

Figure 1 shows a part sectional view of prior art arrangement in which a garbage truck is dumping loose refuse into a push pit, and a container coupled to a prime mover and into which refuse compacted within the pit is to be pushed by a ram; Figure 2 shows the prior art arrangement of Figure 1 and depicts refuse compacted within the pit being pushed into the container by the ram, Figure 3 shows refuse being loaded from a garbage truck into the top of a temporary storage vehicle in accordance with an embodiment of the method of the present invention; Figure 4 shows a view similar to Figure 3 in which the refuse in the temporary storage vehicle has been compacted against a back wall of the temporary storage vehicle by a compactor blade mounted within the temporary storage vehicle; Figure 5 shows a view similar to Figure 4 but with the back wall in its open condition and the compacted refuse being ejected at a land-fill site by the compactor blade.

Figure 1 shows a part sectional view of a prior art transfer station 1 and a collector vehicle, or garbage truck 2, emptying a load of loose refuse 4 into a pushpit 6. The refuse is pushed in the pit's lengthwise direction, that is in a direction out 20 of the page, by a ram 8 against an opposite wall which is not shown for the sake of clarity. The compacted refuse 10 is then pushed transversely, as shown in Figure 2, through a hole 12 in a side wall 14 of the pit 6 into an open end of a pantechnicon, or closed trailer 16, which is temporarily coupled to the side wall 14. When the trailer is fully laden, it is transported to a land-fill site which is remote from the transfer station, a rear door of the trailer is opened, and the refuse is ejected by a pusher blade 18 which is carried within the trailer by an hydraulic ram 20 and which Sis movable along the length of the trailer.

Figures 3 to 5 depict a garbage truck 2 and a temporary storage vehicle 30 for use in accordance with an embodiment of the proposed method for collecting and dumping refuse.

950913,p:\opr\ab,rfuse.cap.5 Referring to Figure 3, the temporary storage vehicle 30 comprises a container 32, for example in the form of a semi-trailer, attached to a prime mover 34 positioned adjacent a ramp 36 and a collector vehicle or garbage truck is positioned on the ramp 36 above the temporary storage vehicle 30 so that it can empty its load of loose refuse directly into the container 32 through a hatch 38 at one end of the container adjacent the prime mover 34. The container 32 is provided with a compression blade 40 mounted on an hydraulic cylinder 42 attached to a front wall 44 of the container 32 and which is actuable to move the blade from a position adjacent the front wall of the container along the length of the container to compact the loose refuse against a back wall 46 of the container.

As each load of loose refuse is unloaded into the container through the hatch, the compactor blade pushes it towards the back wall causing it to be compacted.

When the container is fully laden, the temporary transport vehicle is then driven to a land-fill site, which is usually beyond the boundaries of the municipality in which the garbage has been collected, the back wall of the container is then opened and the compacted refuse is pushed out of the container by the compactor blade.

As a consequence, the need for prior art transfer stations is avoided in that 20 the temporary transport vehicle can be loaded at any location within the municipality at which a ramp has been constructed and can receive loads of loose refuse from garbage trucks which are gathering garbage in that particular locality. This significantly reduces the amount of travel required to be undertaken by each of the garbage trucks as the temporary storage vehicle is positioned at a location close to where they are operating and has the advantage that the cost of constructing a number of ramps and the cost of a temporary storage vehicle is considerably less than that of a single transfer station.

As mentioned above, a number of ramps may be constructed about a particular municipality and therefore one or more temporary storage vehicles may be in use at any particular time.

950913,p:\oper\mrabrefusccap,6 A further advantage to be gained from this method of refuse collection and dumping is that the temporary storage vehicles may be hired out to other municipalities which may not have sufficient funds to either construct a transfer station or which do not themselves wish to travel long distances to land-fill sites.

Although the preferred embodiment includes ejection of the refuse byway of the compactor blade, it is conceivable that the refuse could be emptied from the container by simply opening the back wall of the container and raising the container at its forward end, The invention has been described by way of example only and modifications are possible within the scope of this invention.

950913,p; \oper\mib,re fuse.cap,7 r

Claims

1. A refuse collecting system comprising a plurality of refuse loading stations, a wheeled temporary storage vehicle including mneans for compacting refuse stored therein, said temporary storage vehicle being located at any selected one of the loading stations, and one or more refuse collector vehicles, the or each collector vehicle being drivable into a said loading station at which the temporary storage vehicle is temporarily located to thereby deposit refuse into the storage vehicle and the storage vehicle then being operable to compact refuse therein by operation of thle compacting means, and said storage vehicle heing removable from the loading station for subsequent discharge of the compacted ref use at a remote location, wherein each loading station has a lower level at which the storage vehicle can be positioned, and an upper level onto which the collector vehicle can be **driven such that refuse can be emptied from the collector vehicle directly into thle storage vehicle at the lower level.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein each loading station comprises a ramp for thle collector vehicle, said ramp extending upwardly from ground level and defining said upper level.

3. A system according to claim 1 or claim 2 for use in a municipality, wherein thle loading stations are arranged at different locations within thle municipality.

A method of collecting refuse using a system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, comprising positioning the storage vehicle temporarily at a selected one of thle loading stations, collecting refuse using one or more collector vehicles operating in thle vicinity of that station, transferring refuse from the or each collector vehicle to the storage vehicle *at the loading station, comnpacting the refuse within the storage vehicle, and removing thle storage vehicle from the loading station for discharge of thle compacted refuse at a remote location.

5. A method according to claim 4, wherein after discharge of the compacted refuse, the storage vehicle is returned to the same or a different loading station to receive refuse from one or more collector vehicles operating in the vicinity of that loading station.

6. A refuse collecting system comprising a wheeled transportable refuse compacting and storage container including an upper opening into which refuse can be discharged from a collector vehicle and compacting means for compacting refuse within the container, and a plurality of loading ramps located at different locations, the storage container being locatable on the ground adjacent any selected one of the ramps such that a collector vehicle can be driven onto the ramp so as to be above ground level and can then discharge refuse downwardly into the adjacent compacting and storage container through the upper opening therein, said storage container removable from the vicinity of the ramp for subsequent discharage of compacted refuse at a remote location.

S7 A refuse collecting system according to claim 6 for use in collecting refuse from within a municipality, comprising loading ramps at different locations within the municipality, and one or more of said compacting and storage containers, the or each *o compacting and storage container being periodically movable to different ones of the ramps such that whilst one or more of the ramps is actively being used for loading of the adjacent compacting and storage container, other ramps within the municipality will be inactive.

8. A refuse compacting and storage vehicle for use in a refuse collecting system according to any one of the preceding claims, said vehicle being a wheeled vehicle comprising a container with an upper opening for receiving refuse from a collector vehicle on a ramp above the compacting and storage vehicle, means for compacting refuse within the container, and a discharge opening through which compacted refuse can be discharged t rom the container. "t990 21 6 ,p ir I II,.lrLIIu 'cp.9

9. A vehicle according to claim 8, Wherein thle upper opening is at one end of thle container. and the discharge opening is at an opposite end of the container. D)ATED this 16th day of February, 1999, BRIMBANK CITY COUNCIL and IMARLO PINES PTY. LTD. By their Patent Attorneys D)AVIES COLLISON CAVE 0'o *91161 41m v 1 dw -1 l -11 ABSTRACT A refuse collecting system comprises loading ramps at different locations and one or more refuse storage and compaction vehicles which can be located at selected ones of the ramps to receive refuse from collector vehicles operating in the vicinity of the ramps and which drive up the ramp to deposit refuse into the storage and compacting vehicle. 9509 l3,p:\oper\m -b,refu w.Cap.1 1I