MULE-PULLED WASTE COLLECTION VEHICLES

In the first decades of the 20th century, the most widespread method of waste collection was the use of mule-pulled carts, which were evacuating their cargo in the sea, lakes, rivers etc. The normal practice was the evacuation in pigs’ breeding houses, where the waste was used as animal feed. 75 pigs could consume approximately one ton of recyclable waste per day.

WASTE COLLECTION CLOSED VEHICLES

In the late 1920s the use of motor vehicles begins from Britain for the collection of waste. The superstructure of first waste collection vehicles –spread widely across the globe– predicted the essential requirements, the waste to be covered with metal covering during transport and emptied with overturning. But they didn’t deal with either the loading problem, which was operated by the driver, or the problem of the stench caused by the covered waste.

WASTE COLLECTION VEHICLES WITH EXTENDED HOPPER

In the late 1930s the problem of waste loading on the superstructure of the vehicle was resolved by the American company Heil, which invented in 1929 a mechanism through which a hopper based on the arms to the side of the superstructure, took the cargo of the manually collected waste from a low height and then it overturned within the collector, which had acquired significantly greater volume and height. Despite the continuous improvement of construction over the next few years during World War II, the most prevalent vehicle worldwide continued to be one of the closed type.

DRUM-TYPE WASTE COLLECTION VEHICLES

Despite the many problems the mechanism of hopper solved in waste collection until the late 1940s the problem remained, that in spite of the volume of the superstructure of the vehicle, this was filling too quickly up to the top. This problem was solved by the German technology, creating a mechanism in the form of a rotating screw, which drove the waste to the depth of the superstructure. So the vehicles could no longer take more waste, having greater length, instead of height, which was easier for construction.

PRESS-TYPE WASTE COLLECTION VEHICLES

The revolution in technology of waste collection vehicles came in 1948, when the American company Garwood presents the first waste collection vehicle with compression mechanism. The compactor had the technology not only to reduce the volume of waste, increasing the capabilities of the vehicle loading, but at the same time it served the complete evacuation of the cargo during the overturning. This technology was so crucial to the development of waste collection vehicles that even today’s vehicles are nothing but improved types of the vehicle of 1948.

MODERN WASTE COLLECTION VEHICLES

Since 1980 the rapidly developing waste disposal needs lead to the development of the waste collection vehicles technology. The use of bins led to automating the process of collection aiming at the least possible human involvement in this. So today, as improvements of the original drum-type and press-type waste collection vehicles depending on the way of loading there are rear loaders, front loaders, side loaders or even combinations of these. Modern electronics and hydraulics fully automate the process of collection and specialized the vehicles, depending on the circumstances prevailing in each area.