GB2388115A

GB2388115A - Building blocks comprising a compressed bale of polymeric material

Info

Publication number: GB2388115A
Application number: GB0309605A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Ronald Stephen Elcock; Raymond John Philbey
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2002-04-26
Filing date: 2003-04-28
Publication date: 2003-11-05
Also published as: GB0209604D0; GB0309605D0

Abstract

Building blocks 1 comprise a core 2 of a bound, compacted mass of randomly arranged plastic or elastomeric material 3 encased in an impermeable material 5. The plastic or elastomeric material 3 is preferably used tyres and the impermeable material 5 is preferably concrete. The compacted core 2 is preferably tied in a bale by steel bands 4. A landfill site cell and a method of making the cell is claimed, the cell having perimeter walls and optionally the floor built from the blocks 1, which may be cemented or glued together. The blocks 1 in such a landfill cell can be coated to provide a barrier against waste exudates. Also claimed is a coffer dam formed from the blocks 1.

Description

1 238815

IMPROVEMENTS TO LANDFILL SITES

Field of the Invention

5 The present invention relates generally to an improved method of forming a landfill site cell and to a landfill site cell so-formed.

Baekeround to the Invention 10 It is widely known mat there is a global crisis with the disposal of used vehicle tyres.

Indeed, in the United Kingdom and Europe, it will be made illegal to dispose of whole tyres in land fill sites after July 2003, to dispose of shredded used tyres in hazardous waste land fill sites after July 2004, and to dispose of shredded tyres in non hazardous waste land fill sites after July 2006.

Current landfill site construction methodology requires that the designated land fill sites be divided into cells, being volumes of land which may be worked to extract gravel and or any other appropriate mineral. On completion of the extraction process, each cell must be lined with an impermeable material (omen to a thickness 20 of two metres in the ease of clay), to contain the waste and prevent leaching of exudates from the waste into the water table. This process is known as cell lining or battering. One method of lining a cell was to place used tyres around the walls and floor of the 25 cell and then to place an impermeable membrane over the tyres to effect a sealed volume ready to accept the weate. This process will, however, become illegal after July 2003.

In the Bahamas, the Caribbeans in general and in the Pacific Rim, there is a similar 30 problem with the disposal of used tyres and also a problem with waste management in general, with the result that they each have a major problem with rat infestations.

35 It is one general object of the present invention to address the problem of waste tyre disposal in an efficient, effective and cost effective manner.

It is a further general objective of the present invention to produce an economical and robust building block and to improve on existing landfill site construction technology in such a way that effectively addresses the exacting new regulatory 5 requirements Summarv of the Invention According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of 10 forming a landfill site cell which method comprises the steps of: i. loading a batch of whole tyres randomly into a chamber of a press having a compression ram and operating the compression ram of the press to compact the batch of tyres into a bale form; ii. securing the compacted bale form with ties to hold the bale form in its compact state; iii. encapsulating the bale form in a suitable impermeable material such as 20 resin or nubber or concrete, thereby fomming a building block; iv. repeating steps i to iii a plurality of times to form a plurality of building blocks; v. placing a number of the plurality of blocks at a landfill site in a configuration to 25 define the perimeter wall of a landfill site cell.

Preferably the ties used to hold the bale form are bands of steel.

Particularly preferably the impermeable material used to encapsulate the bale form 30 is concrete.

According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of forming a building block which method comprises the steps of: 35 i. loading a batch of plastics material (including, for example, PVC), rubber or other (suitably inert) elastomeric material randomly into a chamber of a press

having a compression ram and operating the compression ram of the press to compact the batch into a bale form; ii. securing the compacted bale form with ties to hold the bale form in its 5 compact sate; iii. encapsulating the bale form in a suitable impemmeable material such as resin or rubber or concrete; 10 iv. repeating steps i to iii a plurality of times to fomm a plurality of building blocks; and v. placing a number of the plurality of blocks at a landfill site in a configuration to define the perimeter wall of a landfill site cell.

According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a landfill site cell formed from a plurality of building blocks each comprising a core of a compacted mass of randomly arranged types held by ties and encased in concrete 20 or another suitable impermeable material.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention there is provided a landfill site cell formed from a plurality of building blocks each comprising a core of a compacted mass of plastics material (including, for example, PVC), rubber or other 25 (suitably inert) elastomeric material held by ties and encased in concrete or another suitable impermeable material.

The present invention provides an ingenious way of addressing the problem of types no longer being able to be used directly for cell formation in the UK and Europe.

The building blocks may also be be used to form the linings for coffer dams to facilitate the construction of harbours, wharves, and runways for airport.

Brief Description of the D - wines

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be more particularly described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, 5 wherein: Figure 1 is a perspective part cut-away view of a building block for use in the invention; 10 Figure 2 is a frontal perspective view of an example press suitable for compacting the material to be baled; Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2 and showing the bale secured in its compacted form with steel band ties; Figure 4 is a schematic sectional view through a landfill cell illustrating how it may be lined with building blocks of the invention; and Figure 5 is a schematic sectional view through a coffer dam illustrating how it may 20 be constructed with building blocks of the invention.

DeacnDtion of the Preferred Embodiment Referring firstly to Figure 1, the block 1 illustrated comprises a core 2 formed as a 25 compact bale from used tyres 3 and which is held in its compacted form by steel band ties 4 and encapsulated in a concrete casing 5.

The squashed whole tyres fomming the core are in a random mass that has been compressed into the bale form by a hydraulically operated compactor 6, the ram 7 of 30 which is advanced in a linear pressing motion to compact the tyres 3.

To first form the bale a batch of whole tyres 3 is randomly loaded into the compression chamber or hopper of the compactor 6 and compacted by the ram with an effective crushing pressure of 80 to 200 tonnes reducing the tyre mass 35 dramatically, by as much as 98% or so (compression ratio 40:1). The compacted mass is very highly compacted enabling a large volume of waste material / low cost

core material to be hold in a very small volume. Efficient charging of the compaction chamber of the compactor is preferably achieved using a compactor having a valve-

type input gate arrangement whereby tyres that are fed into the compaction chamber are prevented from escaping back out the infeed route.

The tyres 3 are loaded randomly not only for time economy but also so that there is a general effective overlap between the tyres whereby, when compacted, voids are minimized. Furthermore. whole tyres are compacted since cutting up / tearing apart or otherwise shredding tyres is timeconsuming, energetically very wasteful and 10 when done using mechanical shredders creates major equipment maintenance demands. The bale of tyres is then encircled in and tied up with the steel band ties 4 which are threaded through grooves 8 in the ram 7 and opposing plate 9 of the compactor 15 6 to prevent the tyres 3 resiliently expanding after compression (see Figure 2). The ram 7 is then retracted (Figure 3) and the bale removed to an encasement station.

At the encasement station the bale is held in shattering or other suitable housing and encased in concrete ( or other suitable encapsulating impermeable material 20 e.g. rubber or resin) which sets to form a uniform outer shape, eg cuboidal, consistent with forming a building block. The concrete not only encapsulates the bale but may also generally in-fill any small voids in the bale to further strengthen the resultant block.

25 The above-described building blocks once formed are employed to build the cell walls and floor of a landfill site cell. The blocks may be cemented or otherwise glued into position, as illustrated Fig.4, to form a fully lined cell. The cell walls may be further coated (suitably with a bituminous coating) to preventing leaching of any waste exudates into the water tabs.

Cells may be constructed with this approach and waste material disposed of in the cells so- created in a compacted format. Masses of waste tyres can be partially used to create the landfill site cells with the remainder being filled into the so-formed landfill site cells.

In another particularly preferred end use and which could be especially useful to the Caribbean and Pacific islands as mentioned earlier, piles could be driven into the sea bed surrounding an island to form coffer dams, the perimeter walls of which could fomm harbours and runways. The inside of the coffer dam-may be lined with 5 the building blocks 1.

If implemented in tandem to a program of landfill site building, the minerals extracted from a landfill site cell could be emptied into the coffer dam and highly compacted by vibrating pokers to very efficiently produce effective reclaimed land.

The blocks may also be used to construct walls, barriers and other forms of construction either above or below ground but in their primary role serve as a means for safe disposal of waste material.

Claims

Clalms 1. A method of forming a landfill site cell which method comprises

the steps of: i. loading a batch of whom tyres randomly into a chamber of a press having a compression ram and operating the compression ram of the press to compact the batch of tyres into a bale form; 10 ii. securing the compacted bale form with ties to hold the bale form in its compact state; iii. encapsulating the bale form in a suitable impermeable material such as resin or rubber or concrete, thereby fanning a building block; iv. repeating steps i to iii a plurality of times to form a plurality of building blocks; v. placing a number of the plurality of blocks at a landfill site in a configuration to define the perimeter wall of a landfill site cell.
2. A method of forming a landfill site cell as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: vi. placing a number of the plurality of blocks at the landfill site in a configuration 25 to define the floor of the landfill site cell.
3. A method of fomming a landfill site cell as claimed in Claim 1 or 2, wherein the cell is substantially solely lined by the plurality of blocks, without use of an impermeable membrane.
4. A method as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the ties used to hold the bale form are bands of steel.
5. A method as claimer in any preceding claim, wherein the impermeable material 35 used to encapsulate the bale form is concrete.

(
6. method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the blocks are cemented or otherwise glued together to form a lined cell.
7. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the cell walls are further 5 coated with a coating to preventing leaching of any waste exudates into the water table.
8. A method of forming a landfill site cell, which method comprises the steps of: 10 i. loading a batch of plastics material (including, for example. PVC), rubber or other (suitably inert) elastomeric material randomly into a chamber of a press having a compression ram and operating the compression ram of the press to compact the batch into a bale form; 15 ii. securing the compacted bale form with ties to hold the bale form in its compact state; iii. encapsulating the bale form in a suitable impermeable material such as resin or nubber or concrete; iv. repeating steps i to iii a plurality of times to form a plurality of building blocks; and v. placing a number of the plurality of blocks at a landfill site in a configuration to 25 define the perimeter wall of a landfill site cell.
9. A landfill site cell formed of a plurality of building blocks each comprising a core of a compacted mass of randomly arranged tyres held by ties and encased in concrete or another suitable impermeable material.
10. A landfill site cell formed of a plurality of building blocks each comprising a core of a compacted mass of randomly arranged plastics material (including, for example, PVC), rubber or other (suitably inert) elastomeric material held by ties and encased in concrete or another suitable impermeable material.
11. A landfill site cell as claimed in Claim 9 or 10, wherein the cell is substantially solely lined by the plurality of blocks, without use of an impermeable membrane.
12. A landfill site coil as claimed in Claim 9, 10 or 11, wherein the ties used to hold 5 the bale fomm of each building block are bands of steel.
13. A landfill site cell as claimed in Claim 9,10,11 or 12, wherein the impermeable material used to encapsulate the bale form is concrete.

10
14. A landfill site cell as claimed in any of claims 9 to 13, wherein the blocks are cemented or otherwlae glued together to form a lined cell.
15. A landfill site cell as claimed in any of claims 9 to 14, wherein the cell walls are further coated with a coating to preventing leaching of any waste exudates into the 15 water table.
16. A method of forming a coffer dam which comprises the Reps of i. loading a batch of whole tyres randomly into a chamber of a press having a 20 compression ram and operating the compression ram of the press to compact the batch of tyres into a bale form; ii. securing the compacted bale form with ties to hold the bale form in its compact state; iii. encapsulating the bale tome in a suitable impermeable material such as resin or nubber or concrete, thereby forming a building block; iv. repeating steps i to iii a plurality of times to form a plurality of building blocks; v. placing a number of the plurality of blocks at a site in a configuration to line a wall of the coffer dam.

(
17. A method of forming a coffer dam which comprises the steps of: i. loading a batch of plastics material (including, for example, PVC), rubber or 5 other (suitably inert) elastomeric material randomly into a chamber of a press having a compression ram and operating the compression ram of the press to compact the batch into a bale form; ii. securing the compacted bale form with ties to hold the bale fomm in its 10 compact state; iii. encapsulating the bale form in a suitable impermeable material such as resin or rubber or concrete, thereby forming a building block; 15 iv. repeating steps i to iii a plurality of times to form a plurality of building blocks, v. placing a number of the plurality of blocks at a site in a configuration to line a wall of the coffer dam.