Shredding
Stuart Swarbrick, Ferry Road, writes:
We got our Chipper/Shredder at Ferry Road with grant money, and a big part of the whole thing was sharing it with other sites and getting as much use out of it as possible.
We deliberately chose a machine that would take a wide variety of garden waste and would be easy to repair and maintain.
Yes, it might end up broken, but better broken through overwork, than sitting unused in a tool store. It's garden machinery, not your Gran's best china.
We got our Chipper/Shredder at Ferry Road with grant money, and a big part of the whole thing was sharing it with other sites and getting as much use out of it as possible.
We deliberately chose a machine that would take a wide variety of garden waste and would be easy to repair and maintain.
Yes, it might end up broken, but better broken through overwork, than sitting unused in a tool store. It's garden machinery, not your Gran's best china.
- Part of the grant was to buy loading ramps so we can load it into the back of a standard Transit type panel van without the need for a tail-lift, and we have lashing straps to secure it in the back of the van. Most panel vans will have lashing eyes on the floor/bulkhead.
- I don't have much free time, so I'd hoped that through the FEDAGA reps, we could get in touch with sites that would have someone who would come and see how to use the machine, and then it could be borrowed and returned, and the only cost would be the van hire and the fuel to run it. A full day's running would probably go through about a petrol can's worth.
- I was hoping to do this through FEDAGA and the site reps, rather than just offering it to the local community or doing something with the Edinburgh Tool Library, as my reasoning was that if you have someone that gives up their time to organise things for their site, gives up their time to attend FEDAGA meetings, etc, then they're probably quite a conscientious person, and would be careful with something that had been borrowed from a friend, rather than a stranger that had hired a tool or a car and just beat the hell out of it.
- We've had Bridgend over to have a look, and we'll hopefully be arranging a visit to them with the machine soon.
- Even if you aren't interested in the chipper, I would recommend looking into insurance if you have volunteers doing work on behalf of the site - people think of industrial accidents as being big, dramatic things, but there are lots of easy, silly ways to really injure yourself on an allotment site. Even though you're not paying them for the work, volunteers are classed as “employees” for insurance purposes.
- We got our insurance through signing up for the Keep Scotland Beautiful "It's your Neighbourhood" scheme. The insurance is a set price and the scheme is free to join and worth participating in. For us, taking the basic level of cover, it came to £145, although the cover runs fixed term from February to February. This includes both Public Liability, Employers’ Liability and Equipment cover. The Liability insurance is £75 on it’s own, and I believe might cover events, etc.
- Stuart McKenzie at Inverleith is the man to ask about this scheme, as he’s involved in at least two groups doing it: https:// www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/community-and-place/its-your- neighbourhood/
- I also tend to recommend the Enterprise Car Club to people. For £20 a year you can get van only membership.
To hire a van for 24 hours costs:
About (£30 van hire + 23p per mile mileage charge + £1.74 Vehicle Excise Duty) + 20% VAT of total.
You can hire them by the hour, but once you’ve paid for 4 hours it’s capped at the daily rate. You can extend the booking, but since you can return them early I’ve been booking them for the 24 hours so I don’t have to watch the clock. Pre-Covid, you could hot seat them, jumping in after the last hire had finished. Since Covid they’re getting blocked by the system for cleaning, but i think they've been treated with something anti-viral.
Always bring glass cleaner for the mirrors – they’re cleaned regularly, but since they’re parked on the street the glass gets dirty, and water spots and sun glare don’t mix well. - The Car Club vans that have the logo on the side get two hours free parking in Council Parking bays https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/roads-pavements/ enterprise-car-club?documentId=12699&categoryId=20089
- Hirers have to refuel the vehicle, but the fuel cost is included in the hire price. There’s a fuel card in the cab to pay for it.
- To give you an idea, I hired a van to do a job for my Mum and it cost me £52.32. I racked up 56 miles, going out to Livingston, to B&Q at Hermiston and back.
- Following Alan's suggestion of hiring a forester to go from site to site, well I'd be up for giving it a go with a hire van and our machine for a day.
- If there was a small group of sites that were interested perhaps we could give a one off go? I couldn't do it every weekend, but maybe one day before the growing season gets going.
- The material would have be to be prepped and ready to go - it's not as powerful as a Timberwolf like the Forestry guys use, which chew up massive branches, but it can do up to 3" / 75mm thick in the chipper chute if it's fairly straight.
- It can only do up to 15mm or 5/8" thick in the shredder hopper, if it’s too thick it can damage the hammers, but as long as it's not too soggy or includes a half brick, it will contend with most greenery you shove down.
- If it does clog it’s literally a couple of minutes to pull out the screen and clear the chamber.
- I've been using it to grind up the twiggy compost out of the site compost heaps.
- It's gravity fed, so it drops the chippings on the ground, so they'll need shovelled up. It's a simple, basic machine.
- I can also bring the Leaf Blower we got with the FEDAGA Small Grants Fund to help with the clean up.
- The other option that was mentioned was dropping off the material at a site with a machine to be chipped there.
We could certainly accommodate that at Ferry Road, as we have lots of uncultivable space due to the avenue of mature trees - so that's where we have our compost heaps, etc.
There’s a big pile waiting my attention just now. - If there are any sites on the north/east side of the City the next time we have a site tidy day and I'm clearing stuff to the dump, if we arranged it beforehand I could swing by with the hire van and take a pile away - it would only be a couple of extra quid on the mileage.
- Material could be brought round to Ferry Road if your site is within wheelbarrow walking distance – Letham Park, Victoria Park.
- You can bring a van into Ferry Road, but no matter how many times I do it, I'm nervous every time as it gets quite tight at different points throughout. I have no idea how they managed to get the shipping container in.
- We might need to inform SEPA about changes to our Waste Management Exemption certificate if we were taking in material on a regular basis, but I very much doubt we’d be passing the 100 tonne limit any time soon. Anything green would go into the site compost heaps. Any wood chip is gone in a few days with folk wanting it for paths, etc.
- If you have any questions, let me know. - [email protected]