DualPact is the aptly named rear-loading compactor range from OEM Garwood, a company that specialises in equipment for the waste and resource recovery industry.
The compactor can be fitted onto a chassis and comes with split tailgates that have a wall down the middle of the body that allows users to split different waste streams/resources being collected.
Daniel McHugh is the managing director of Garwood, and he has seen an uptick in interest for the product over the past 12 months. It was showcased at the Coffs Harbour Waste Conference, AWRE and the recent Waste Expo Australia event held in Melbourne. In all three instances, interest was high at the capabilities of the machines.
“The tailgates are completely separate, and with a wall in the middle of the body there’s zero chance of getting cross contamination,” he said. “You can pick up any type of waste, or two types of waste – one side can have paper while the other side might be glass. It’s up to you.”
They come in three split configurations – 50/50, 60/40 and 70/30, which allows for more storage for more prolific waste. McHugh said the DualPact is beneficial in places like regional or rural settings where councils and/or contractors drive out to farms or acreage, or other remote places where different waste streams need to be picked up and it’s also very efficient in city & town centres where you have litter bins with General waste and recyclable bins side by side.
“They can do that in one run with one truck, where normally they’d have to send two trucks,” said McHugh. “Or the truck would have to do one pick up and then go round again to pick up the second waste stream.”
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One of the key points about these compactors is that they are made locally by Garwood. Being an OEM means the company can configure each unit to a customer’s needs. The make-up of these bespoke models can be discussed before they are built.
“We rely on information from the customer as to the percentage rates they might require for the compactor,” said McHugh. “They’re basically getting two trucks in one body. You’ve got the two tailgates that are split, and two lifter mechanisms fitted to the tailgates at the back end of the unit. We also separate the control systems from one side to the other, which means they are truly independent. It means that if the unfortunate circumstance arises where there is something that is causing one side to break down, the other side will run because of those independent control systems.”
McHugh said that Garwood has garnered a lot of interest via its UK-based subsidiary Garwood Europe. Garwood has been in Europe since 2002 and exports some of its compactors and other products to the region.
“There’s a high demand for these products in the European market. We’ve been selling the DualPact there for 20 years,” he said. “We’ve seen an increase in sales of this product in the Australian market, too, because there’s a lot of areas that can be used. It seems the more we promote this, the more people are putting in orders.”
McHugh says that Garwood has developed this product over the past 20 years, and it is now starting to pay dividends as it is now getting a good reputation. Also, a lot of councils and contractors can see the benefits of having a two-in-one compactor designed for collecting roadside waste.
“People are getting more confident with the product and its ability to do what we say it can,” said McHugh. “We can do body sizes from six cubic metres right up to 24 cubic metres and sizes in between.
“They can be custom-fit onto most truck chassis, too.”