Devised by McPhee Mixers, the Spill Stopper wash-out facility is integrated into the truck’s design, helping prevent any waste that develops from the chute of a concrete mixer in transit from escaping onto roads. It enables trucks to be washed out anywhere, at any time, contributing to quicker turnaround of trucks, and works by separating solids from waste water and containing the materials within an enclosed system. Hauliers are able to wash out and then transport waste water and excess concrete safely back to one of Lafarge Tarmac’s nationwide network of ready mix plants to be processed, recycled and re-used.
Jeremy Greenwood, managing director, Lafarge Tarmac Readymix said; “Delivering customer-focused sustainable solutions is core to our business, and this new wash-out technology enables us to further improve site cleanliness and road safety, whilst also supporting our corporate commitment to resource efficiency. The system helps us to manage valuable resources like water and concrete, and re-use them to make new products.”
The wash-out system has already been fitted onto the company’s latest order of 30 new mixers, and will be specified as standard on all new mixers going forward.
The fit-out of the system across its entire 350-strong concrete mixer fleet will take six years to complete. In the interim, Lafarge Tarmac is exploring a range of alternative retrofit measures to manage and prevent spillage from its existing fleet, such as concrete socks and stoppers that help to collect any spillage.
Lafarge Tarmac says the system is part of its ongoing commitment to improving safety and to managing finite resources such as water, cement and aggregates in an efficient way.
The company has set a target to reduce water consumption per unit of production by 25% by 2020 and it is focused on designing out waste from every stage of the product life cycle.
