Recycling for young & old

Thu 15 Jun 2017

Recycling for young & old

A bustling recycling facility in the heart of the South Devon Hams might seem like an unlikely place to find a 20 year old female operating a wheeled loading shovel, or even an 87 year old gentleman operating a tracked loading shovel, but Jeremy Bishop Haulage Ltd’s recycling yard, just off the A38 at Lee Mill is where you can find both these operators with an incredible 67 years between them! Issy Wood, who is the girlfriend of Will Bishop, Jeremy Bishop’s son, joined the family based business at the tender age of 19 when she took on the less than glamourous job of litter picking from the belts of the screening machines. She was not afraid to get stuck into the job in hand and quickly became one of the “boys” on site. This job enabled her to fund her passion in life, which is skiing, a hobby which has taken her to many of the skiing hotspots across Europe and especially in France, where she and Will recently spent the winter season.

Her chance on the Doosan DL350 wheeled loader came about one day when its regular operator had called in sick. Having already had all the necessary CPCS training in the safe operation of the machine, Issy was asked if she would take on the drive for the day. It was a move which has seen her continue in the role of shovel operator in an ongoing capacity. Issy has also attained her CPCS excavator category recently too, asked which machine she preferred best Issy said, “My favourite machine has to be the wheeled loading shovel, mainly due to the fact that I have more experience on it and I enjoy the work it’s deployed on here. I also enjoy the swing shovel (as 360^oexcavators are affectionately known in these parts) but I need a bit more experience on them yet”. Issy joked that in the summer she would prefer to litter pick than be stuck in a machine, so she can top up that all important pre-holiday sun tan!

At the other end of the scale the company employs the services of long term tracked shovel operator Alan Illman, who belies his 87 years and still has an incredible zest for life and his job, which is truly inspirational. Alan’s career in plant started at the age of 23 when he first took to the controls of a Whitlock “Dinkum Digger” on sites in the local area. He then went on to work for South Brent based Wakeham Hire, where he was to spend the next 33 year’s operating tracked shovels and dozers including spells on Cat D6 and Komatsu D65’s equipped with scraper boxes. Alan spent many of those years on long term hire to a golf course construction outfit from Verwood in Dorset. At the tender age of 64, when most people are considering retirement, Alan went to work for them direct for another 4 years, then as yet another cold winter approached Alan decided not to work another one. It was during one of those cold winter days sat at home, that Alan got a call from the then owner of this recycling facility Malcolm Handside, who asked him if he would be interested in doing a couple of days for him on a shovel, Alan agreed to give it a shot and those couple of days have turned out to be 20 years as he is still here to this day!

Asked about his affection for the tracked shovel in general Alan said, “The track shovel has always been my favourite, of course I’ve worked on all sorts of machines over the years, but my heart is and always will be with the shovel. People often talk about back problems caused by sitting in them for years on end, but I have to be honest, I have never had any back issues from operating them, the key to it is you have to ride with the machine, it’s no good sitting rigid otherwise they could give you a bit of stick, especially some of the older machines which didn’t have any suspension in them”. Alan continued, “Of course the latest track shovels are lovely compared to the old ones, but it does seem that firms are still struggling to find operators for them, I suppose it’s a bit like backhoe loaders these days, not many of the young ones want to operate them anymore, they are all mad for the swing shovel.”

Asked about his latest mounts on site Alan said, “The older 963B I have been using here for years has been good as gold, she works hard and certainly has some push in her. Generally I think the Cat takes some beating in the track shovel world, although I do have some fondness for the old International TD175. Some people used to moan about them, but I thought it was a great machine really, admittedly they did give a bit of trouble with the brakes, but the engine was great and it was a very well-balanced machine overall”. Alan’s old Cat 963B is about to be replaced by a good quality second hand 963C model, which has been sourced locally. The replacement machine was on site on the day of Earthmovers visit but was awaiting sign writing, however Alan on his old machine and another long term employee at the facility, Matt Shute, were using both machines to push down more material ready for processing, during which time they put on a mini rendition of the famous Malaga Big Push with the two track shovels working side by side.

Alan is still doing 6 days a week at the facility and always starts at 5am in the morning, not because he has to, but simply because he enjoys his job and what he does for a living, you can clearly see how much he loves it as he never stops smiling all the time he is behind the controls of the machine! Jeremy Bishop Haulage Ltd was initially formed by Jeremy and his wife Jane, as far back as 1991, primarily as a haulage business, running articulated bulk haulers and later low loader transport, however in late 2013 the company were in a good position to purchase two very well-known local companies, DJB (SW) Haulage Ltd and Handside (SW) Ltd and with the latter came the recycling side of the business. The company has invested heavily in new crushing and screening kit from the likes of Terex Finlay with a J-1170AS jaw crusher, 883 heavy duty screener and a 684 Supertrak 4 way screener. In addition they run two McCloskey 516 1-877 trommels, which work side by side, believed to be the only set up of its kind in the West Country.

The operation at Lee Mill, which is overseen by another family member Richard Bishop, is very extensive with material coming in, including builders waste and other waste material like dirt with a high stone content, which is processed to make several different high quality reusable products from 5mm dust up to 75mm clean all of which are independently tested and are produced in accordance with the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP protocol). The aim is to reach 100% recycling of all waste brought into the facility, which can only be a good thing for the environment and for businesses in the area too. Much of the material is transported to and from the recycling centre by Jeremy Bishop Haulage’s 20 strong fleet of 8x8 and 6x6 tipper trucks but customers are welcome to use their own transport. As is standard for this type of operation timber, plastic and metal is sorted out during the screening process, as we mentioned earlier a job that Issy started on, this material which they try to keep to a minimum is placed in skips. Stoney soil is pre-screened to separate the soil then put through the trommels again to ensure cleanliness.

Talking about the process Managing Director Jeremy Bishop said, “I am very passionate about this recycling operation and have invested a lot of money on it in the past two years. Our aim is to produce a top quality product which is as close to quarry sourced material as possible, but at a fraction of the cost. It’s incredible to think that previously most of this material would have gone straight to landfill, but now it is being put to good use again. We are currently processing around 150,000 tonnes per year on average and it’s proving very popular as we are being kept on our toes all the time such is the demand for our products!” Jeremy continued, “As house building continues on a large scale both locally and nationally, there is a huge demand for a more cost effective way of purchasing materials. In addition a lot of local authorities are now specifying the use of recycled materials as part of the planning regulations, which can only be a good thing for the environment”. The company are in the process of upgrading a number of the prime movers machine wise at the facility, which as Jeremy said is vital for the continued success of the business as new kit means less downtime with minimal loss of production.

Talking about the machines Jeremy said, “We have been running a fair bit of Doosan kit, which in all fairness has served us extremely well, but our local salesman Stuart Ameer Ali moved on to Liebherr and we thought we would give them a try. I purchased a Liebherr 922 which is operated by my son Will, we have had it for a few months now and it’s proving to be a fantastic machine, its well-engineered, needs no AdBlue, and has autolube as standard. The cab seems to sit further forward on the upper-structure compared to many other machines, which really suits our kind of work in terms of visibility into the crushers and screening equipment, Will loves the machine too siting the excellent cab comfort, visibility and low noise levels as his favourite aspects”

The Doosan DL450 wheeled loading shovel has been an incredibly reliable piece of kit for the business and is currently running in excess of 12,000 hours on the meter, Jeremy suggested that this machine will shortly be ready for an upgrade and following the success of the Liebherr excavator a wheeled loader from the same stable will definitely be considered. Another long standing operator, who has been working at this site for many years, previously with Handside’s, is Mike Shute who operates a Doosan DX225LC, which joined the fleet in 2014. I myself worked with Mike on my first job after moving to the Westcountry on the construction of a supermarket in the Plympton area of Plymouth and it was great to discover he was still at it at this facility.

It was clear to see that this operation is run like a real family business and everyone, even those not related, young and old have a great input into the day to day running of the site.

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