ACS Brisbane City Council May 2012
Brisbane City Council introduces state-of-the-art electric powered, self-propelled Glutton vacuum unit into its city cleansing fleet
Building on its phenomenal success, both internationally and throughout Australia and New Zealand, the latest chapter in the remarkable Glutton success story has seen the first of several of the eco- friendly electric-powered GLUTTON waste vacuum units commissioned by Brisbane City Council’s City Cleansing Fleet.
Commissioned by Brisbane City Council earlier this year, the GLUTTON unit is already having a major positive impact on street cleansing throughout the Brisbane CBD (including Brisbane Square and the Queen Street Mall) as well as throughout the popular Fortitude Valley dining and entertainment precinct.
Not surprisingly, as is the case with other Glutton units now operating throughout
Australia and New Zealand, the new Brisbane City Council unit is generating significant interest and winning wide-spread praise for its design and performance – from operators, local residents, local business owners, and even a number of other councils in the South East Queensland region – particularly when it comes to micro-litter including cigarette butts
Importantly, as a fully-electric powered unit, the Glutton vacuum unit is in keeping with Council’s green commitment to make Brisbane a carbon neutral city by 2026. It is also in line with Council’s sustainability policy, which focuses on providing a clean and green city that is smart, prosperous, accessible, inclusive, creative and healthy, and that leads the region by example.
It’s an unfortunate fact that in areas where people congregate, such as shopping strips, transport interchanges, entertainment precincts and the like, micro litter – especially discarded cigarette butts
compact mechanized sweeper really only collects minor litter from the pavements.” “Generally, most councils then deploy manual labour during business hours to hand broom areas that the sweeper was unable to collect.” “The Glutton will collect all debris and litter during business hours from pedestrian thoroughfare areas quietly and unobtrusively - at the times that the majority of litter is being generated - ensuring that CBD, CAD, pedestrian malls and café precincts always present clean and tidy,” he said. “I am not exactly sure of the costs to purchase a compact mechanized sweeper nowadays, but I would think that they must be upwards of 100K - not to mention the operating costs,” James Daniels added. “The Glutton costs under $1.00 per hour to operate and can be purchased for a fifth of the cost of a compact mechanized sweeper.”
Eco-Friendly
Electric Operation
Thanks to its design, the battery- powered GLUT TON is capable of providing an average of 12 hours of independent operation in normal usage between charges. The unit’s “intelligent” integrated battery charger can recharge the batteries anywhere that there is a 240v electric socket available. What’s more, the fact that it is 100% battery powered means that it has zero CO2 emissions. As with most Council’s throughout Australia, Brisbane City Council places an emphasis on minimising the environmental impact of all of its operations – particularly in relation to reducing CO2(e) emissions, including reducing the environmental impact and carbon footprint of all of the equipment in its fleet. Needless to say, the GLUT TON’s fully-electric, zero emission operation, fits perfectly with these sustainability goals. Most importantly, the GLUTTON eco-friendly unit delivers these environmental benefits without sacrificing performance, quality or productivity. The electric drive motor and vacuum motor both deliver plenty of power. Indeed, the drive motor is strong enough to cope with even the steepest pavements and ramps, whilst the battery provides more than sufficient capacity for up to 12 hours of uninterrupted ‘zero emission’ operation.
– are a real issue. What’s more, due to the nature of micro litter and the areas in which it tends to be discarded, collection and removal using traditional methods such as sweeping or manual picking, tends to be cumbersome, time-consuming and, in many instances, largely ineffective.
The state-of-the-art electric powered, self-propelled Glutton vacuum unit offers councils and contractors a practical, affordable and highly efficient weapon in the never-ending battle against micro litter, whilst also being able to cope other larger litter items. Speaking about the Glutton units, James Daniels, Managing Director with Glutton’s exclusive Australian distributor Applied Cleansing Solutions (ACS), commented: “When you consider that the weather (wind) does most of the sweeping duties by way of blowing paper, silt, grit ,sand, leaf, pollen and cigarette butts into corners and around infrastructure, the more traditional
Innovative Litter Control Solutions
Established in 1989, Applied Cleansing Solutins (ACS) has an enviable reputation for supplying high quality, innovative litter control solutions to Councils, Authorities and private contractors throughout Australia and New Zealand. From its humble beginnings in Melbourne, ACS has now grown to include offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, and sales and service agents in Western Australia, South Australia (Clean It Environmental) and New Zealand (McPhail Group) – providing sales, spare parts and after sales service on its entire equipment range.
Building on its success with the state-of- the-art GLUTTON ‘zero emission’ vacuum litter collection unit, ACS has now introduced a number of other innovative litter collection solutions to the Australian and New Zealand markets.
Speaking about the new equipment range, ACS Managing Director James Daniels, said:
“From the outset, our aim has been to develop a range of innovative, high quality litter collection solutions to suit a wide range of applications and budgets.” “For too long, councils, contractors and private facility owners / operators have been
Cigarette Butt Litter Issues
According to the Keep Australia Beautiful National Litter Index (NLI) cigarette butts represent around 48% of litter in Australia. Indeed, from the 983 sites surveyed in 2011, the urban and non-urban areas (each 1,000m3 in area), produced an average of 29 cigarette butts. NSW sites produced an average of 33 littered cigarette butt per 1,000m2 area.
Together with the fact that cigarette butts seriously degrade the appearance of an area, the fact that they take an average of five years to break down, means that they can become a long-term problem for gardens, drains and waterways.
facing a never-ending battle when it comes to litter control,” he said. “And unfortunately, for many, it’s a losing battle – especially when it comes to micro litter such as cigarette butts.”
“Due to the nature of micro litter and the areas in which it tends to be discarded, collection and removal using traditional methods such as sweeping or manual picking, tends to be cumbersome, time- consuming and, in many instances, largely ineffective,” James Daniels said.
“Interestingly, one of the major issues when it comes to litter control, is that the focus has almost exclusively been on using larger mechanized sweepers that can only be used after hours when pedestrian activity is at a minimum.”
“The other major issue is that of equipment access – especially around street furniture, litter bins and permanent infrastructure such as café screens and the like. In these instances, when a traditional sweeper is unable to gain access to all of the pavement, a typical solution has been to use a hand-held blower to move the waste debris into an area that can be accessed by the sweeper. This not only results in more noise, it’s time-consuming, requires twice the effort, and can only be done while there are no pedestrians in the immediate vicinity,” he said.
“With that in mind, we placed an emphasis on providing equipment which can be used during the day – even while pedestrians are in the immediate vicinity. Units that collect the litter without it having to be moved from one place to another - with minimal noise and inconvenience to shoppers, retailers, diners, and local residents,” James Daniels added.
Together with the GLUTTON ‘Zero Emission’ electric powered litter vacuum units, ACS has also introduced a range of cost-effective litter collection equipment. From small backpack vacuum units, through to larger vehicle-mounted hi-flow litter collection vacuums, ACS has a litter collection unit to suit all situations and budgets.
Innovative Australian Designed and Built Litter Collection Unit
In what has become the latest ‘feather in the cap’ for ACS, the company has recently been appointed exclusive Australian and New Zealand distributor of the innovative LitterMaster range of high performance litter collection equipment, including the ‘flagship’ LitterMaster 9000 skid-mounted diesel-powered vacuum unit.
Designed and manufactured in Australia by Sydney-based company IVS, the LitterMaster 9000 has been specifically developed to provide rapid litter collection and clean up in car parks and along high- ways, roadsides and property boundaries.
Built tough to withstand harsh operating environments, the LitterMaster 9000 has been designed with a focus on ease of use, easy emptying and minimal maintenance.
Features and benefits include:
• Massive airflow (suction rates up to 9,000cfm)
- Straight through suction design (no impeller wear)
- Easy Emptying (low cost, 400litre capacity dust filtered collection bags)
- Easy and safe to use(no exposed fan/impeller)
- Direct-coupled fan to engine(no belts to maintain / replace)
- Rapid clean up without any labour intensive brooming or shoveling
- Powered by 11HP Yanmar electric start diesel engine 3 m hose boom with 10m anti-static 204mm polyurethane hose
ACS is also the exclusive Australian and New Zealand distributor of the UK designed and manufactured Overton range of backpack and ‘walk behind’ compact litter collection vacuums.
Available in a range of sizes and capacities to suit a variety of litter collections, the innovative Overton units offer a range of benefits, including:
- Safe and easy to operate
- Reliable Husqvarna ICE powered
- Clean ‘no wear’ vacuum fan system
- Robust low maintenance design
- Model capacities ranging from 50 litres to 240 litres
- Up to 8 hours of uninterrupted operation on one tank of fuel
For further information please contact Applied Cleansing Solutions:
National Head Office, Ph: (03) 9769 1211 or visit the website: www.appliedcleansing.com.au