UNC Chapel Hill uses a split bodied compactor. Contact BJ Tipton BJ.Tipton@facilities.unc.edu

hope that helps!

Andrew

I'll be interested to hear from people with experience using these systems. If the compactors are 100% solar-powered they should be carbon-neutral, once you offset the embedded GHG to manufacture and install them.

At the same time, I think we need to remember that these compactors reduce the volume of waste, but not the amount of waste being produced. Is the goal simply to reduce the amount of space used for accumulating the waste? Or to reduce hauling charges [if based on volume rather than weight]?

These may well be worthwhile goals, but they do not reduce the total amount of waste. Requiring suppliers to reduce the amount of waste used in packaging and shipping would be a solid waste-minimization goal. [See the University of California's waste-minimization policy.]

If your campus uses single-use serving containers and utensils, eliminating them in all food service locations would do even more to reduce waste on campus! [The so-called biodegradable service ware not only diverts farmland from food to producing throwaway products, these products require a properly managed composting operation that maintains them at a minimum of 160–200°F for 10 consecutive days -- they do not break down in a landfill or casual composting situation.]

Peter Crownfield
 Campus Sustainability Initiative
Alliance for Sustainable Communities-Lehigh Valley
Bethlehem, PA  18015 
www.sustainlv.org 

Hi Shane,

I have seen a few problems with split body compactors, whether they are part of a truck or ground mounted.

The biggest is irregular fill. Typically the two chambers of the split body do not fill equally. One typically fills before the other, sometimes significantly. As a result, you often end up hauling the compactor at much less than it's total overall capacity.

The other problem is that you typically have double the hydraulics. Typically, each chamber has it's own ram and it's own hydraulics. If you have a truck mounted split packer or a self-contained ground mounted unit (in which the entire unit including rams is hauled away with the contents), that can significantly reduce your capacity even more because so much of your available weight is taken up by the hydraulics.

I would suggest instead looking at 2 separate compactors. If that is too much capacity, you might even consider one of the units that will vertically compact into a traditional 4-yard dumpster from which your stuff could be picked up as part of an existing waste or recycling hauler's collection route.

Hope this helps.