Automated Waste Collection Almere City Centre CONTACT Contactname : Mrs. A.D. Vijselaar CentralNed BV P.O. Box 318 2130 AH Hoofddorp The Netherlands Telephone : +31 (0)23 569 25 96 Facsimile: +31 (0)23 569 25 93 Email: oat@centralned.nl Website : www.centralned.nl EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Anja Vijselaar, CentralNed In the newly founded city of Almere (near Amsterdam), targeted to grow to 350,000 inhabitants, a large city centre has been designed with a high quality. This city centre combines living, shopping and recreation. These functions take place on a lifted level. All traffic, parking and goods transport are restricted to the lower ground level. The collection of waste in the city centre excludes lorries. All waste is collected by an Automated Waste Collection (AWC) system. This system transports the waste using an air stream through an underground pipe system to a collection terminal, situated outside the city centre, where the waste is compressed into large waste containers. This AWC system has been developed 50 years ago in Sweden and since then about 600 systems have been installed in many countries all over the world. The system applied Almere City Centre is one of the largest and has more functions than any other system. The City Centre houses about 2,000 apartments and 200,000 m2 commercial properties (shops, restaurants/bars, theatres and offices). All apartments and most of the commercial users are connected to the system. As a result almost all waste from the Centre is removed by the system. The system operates fully automated during 24 hours a day and seven days a week. The specific wishes of Almere Municipality lead to the development of several innovations: Special litter bins in all public areas were designed to be connected to the system, in order to avoid littering of the streets during busy hours. A special card reader system was applied to restrict the access to residents and contract holders. By this registration of users and potential billing in future is prepared For department stores special cardboard compactors with revolver buffers were installed. In the terminal a container shifting system was installed to guarantee the continuity of waste handling during night hours and weekends. The system fits very well in the sustainability targets of Almere. Excluding access of refuse lorries in the city centre contributes immediately to diminishing of CO2 and fine dust particles emissions. As a bonus resulting in no noise, no nasty smell but tidy, clean streets. Furthermore property developers save m2 of precious space otherwise destined for storage of waste. All waste is removed daily beneficiary to hygienic circumstances. The operation of the system was started in 2003 and all related citizens (residents, authorities and businesses) are really happy with the system. The city is clean during all hours of the day, also in the neighbourhood of fast food restaurants and schools. New clients are connected as the City Centre is still under construction.
INTRODUCTION Capital of the Netherlands is Amsterdam. Rotterdam has one of the biggest harbours of the world, but most business is concentrated in Amsterdam. Almost all national and international head offices of stock market quoted concerns are located in Amsterdam. For this purpose Amsterdam is in a constant need of areas to extend its business and residential territory. Almere, New City on the Bottom of the Sea Already 30 years ago it was acknowledged that the future of Amsterdam as a main business centre would depend on expansion. This expansion would only be possible at the expense of specific Dutch landscape/nature and the Dutch government decided to found a new satellite city on new land that just been regained from the sea. This totally new city - named Almere - should at first grow until 200,000 residents, but recently the target was extended to 350,000 residents in the year 2040. Almere City Centre A city of that scale can not exist without a city centre accommodating all intrinsic functions for administration (offices), shopping (all type of department stores and shops) and recreation (restaurants, bars, cinema s, theatres, etc.). The international renowned architect Rem Koolhaas contributed with his design to a unique, totally new city centre between the business district and the lake. To keep the city lively throughout all days of the week, also 2,000 apartments spread over the centre, became part of the design.(see figure 1) Almere, Appealing Shopping Area (1) Urban Design Base idea of the design was a strict separation between local traffic, parking and goods logistics in a lower world and living, shopping, walking and recreation in an upper world. The architect became the strict task to create a city centre of really high quality. Key words were: innovation, sustainability and eminence, but also being modern and vivid. Moreover the centre should be clean, safe and appealing. As a result its waste should be removed invisibly, without storage and therefore preserving precious space. As a consequence an innovative system of waste collection was selected: an Automated Waste Collection System. AUTOMATED WASTE COLLECTION SYSTEM Worldwide proven In 1961 the first Automated Waste Collection (AWC) system was installed in a hospital in Stockholm. This system is today still in operation. Since then our systems were installed in a large number of cities, worldwide. Most systems facilitate the waste disposal of residential areas, but recently also in commercial and mixed commercial-residential areas large scale AWC systems were installed. The system of Almere is one of the biggest, which contains several innovations in application and system equipment.
AWC operation system The principle of the system is quite simple. The waste of households or businesses is collected in restricted buffers, close to the source. Those buffers are connected to a system of (underground) pipes. In order to empty the buffers an air stream (70 km/h) is activated in the pipe system. Then the bottom valve of the buffer is opened, the waste falls into the air stream and is transported to the collection terminal. There the air and the waste are separated. The air is cleaned by a filter and the waste is dropped and compressed into a large waste container. So far the system shows very simple. The complexity is introduced because the system is fully automated and many different variations in collection combinations have been incorporated. (see figure 2) Innovative and simple system (2) THE ALMERE SYSTEM Inlets In the Almere city centre almost 2000 residents drop their waste in the AWC system. For this purpose in front of most apartment buildings special styled inlets have been placed on the walk way. Shops and businesses are generally facilitated by indoor inlets. Especially the bigger department stores have inlets at each level. (See figure 3) Inlets for commercial users (3)
Sections Because of the amount of inlets (200) and the great length of the total pipe system (10 km), the system has been divided into sections. This is necessary to reduce the power (energy) during the collection procedure. Only in the main pipe (aorta) and in the section under treatment, the strong air stream is maintained. Three Fractions Almere chose to collect three different waste fractions: paper, green waste and incinerable waste. For each fraction a separate inlet is installed. The operation system enables to use one single pipe system for all fractions. In the terminal the transport air stream in the single main pipe is directed to the separator of the correct fraction by a special valve Terminal The terminal is the heart of the system. Its size depends on the number of fractions and the total quantity of waste to be handled. Its location is chosen at the border of the connected area (the city centre), close to one of the main roads for easy access by container lorries. The architect designed a real landmark that he titled as a tilted (shoe) box. It is known by locals as The Vacuum cleaner. Terminal, Vacuum cleaner (4) Computer operated The entire collection process is automatically operated by a computer (PLC). The computer is programmed in advance for all the preferred operation cycles, activated by a time table or complete signs of buffers. If needed an operator can switch the system to manual operation. This
will be so during maintenance or in case of a problem, mostly caused by illegal oversized waste deposits. Reporting of a problem is done by this computer to the operator s (mobile) phone and most problems can be handled remotely. INNOVATIONS IN ALMERE Special demands By its long existence the AWC system has been widely proven. However the demands of Almere were more than standard AWC systems could provide. As a consequence several innovations were implemented making the Almere system unique in the world. Litter Bins The upper world was build with a sophisticated quality. It would be unacceptable if the area would be littered. Many shopping and recreation areas in cities receive much litter during busy hours. Traditional litter bins can not hold these amounts of waste and collection in the middle of the crowd would be unacceptable. Therefore a system of litter bins has been developed and connected to the AWC system. The litter bins can now be emptied on every preferred hour of the day (and night) and as a result the area is kept really clean during the entire day. Particularly in the vicinity of fast food restaurants and schools the streets are much cleaner during the entire day since the start of the litter bins system.(see figure 5) Litterbins in Almere (5) Cardboard Compactor and Revolver Buffer A second innovation is the implementation of cardboard compactor directly connected to the system. Particularly department stores and supermarkets produce a large stacks of cardboard waste. The cardboard boxes of those shops are now collected in the compactor, cut into strips and pressed to blocks.. These blocks are stored in a revolver buffer until they are collected by the system, together with the paper fraction. (See figure 6) Compactor Almere (6)
Card Reader System The city of Almere wanted to restrict and register the access to the system. All residents have access and commercials can make a contract for utilization of the system. With their instruction folder all users received an electronic key to open the inlets. As the keys are specific for each user, each access is registered. In the future billing per disposed quantity will be a realistic option. (See figure 7) Card reader detail (7) Container Shifting System Finally, a specific innovation has been installed in the terminal. Once the city centre has been completely connected to the AWC system, the quantity of waste will be such that containers will be full at inconvenient hours, during nights and the weekends. To prevent a situation that containers have to be changed at these inconvenient hours or the system will be out of order during a longer period, an automated container shifting system have been designed and installed. At the moment a container is reported completely full, the system automatically closes the door of the container, pushes it free from the compactor and shifts the full containers sidewards. A new empty container is shifted in front of the compactor and connected to the compactor. The complete container can be transported later during standard working hours. BENEFITS OF THE AWC SYSTEM Sustainable The standard waste collection systems in most cities are still really old fashioned. The only innovations consist of mini container instead of plastic bags or rolling containers in buildings or underground containers in front of the building. This collection system has several disadvantages for the environment: The refuse-lorry has to enter the centre frequently and intensively. This causes annoyance by air pollution (fine dust), noise, traffic congestions and danger for pedestrians. The waste or the containers wait mostly for hours on the streets before it is collected. This causes pollution, nasty smell and an untidy streets. During summertime it is also unhygienic. Before the waste is collected it has to be stored inside of a building. This occupies space and may cause unhygienic circumstances.. Particularly discarded food in households, restaurants and other organic waste from supermarkets form a real sanitation problem. Advantages The environment is the big winner of the implementation of the system. Far less lorries in the streets, no littering of the streets anymore and a clean and appealing street image. As a result of the absence of refuse-lorries, town planners have much more freedom to create a pleasant setting for living, shopping and recreation. The system functions 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Your waste is collected at the right moment The big advantage for property owners and managers is the realistic savings on space in their property and handling and cleaning costs of containers. Financial balance Of course the system requires a substantial investment. However many thorough calculations have learned that in urban situations the system will be within approx.10 to 15 years more economic than any other collection system. After that time the system still functions, without the need of further investments or higher maintenance costs.
CONCLUSION The decision to provide the city centre of Almere of an innovative waste collection system shows vision. By an intensive cooperation of authorities, city planners and architects, CentralNed was able to provide the City Centre with a really sophisticated system of waste collection. Innovative solutions in combination with a city still under construction may cause unexpected situations. Of course several challenges appeared during the first period of operation. Either operators, authorities and users of the system had to get used to this way of collection and newly innovated parts needed time to function properly. In general, all people who were first sceptic about the system, have become really enthusiastic. In addition it proved possible to accommodate special solutions for some specific users like a cinema and a large scale supermarket whereas the system is more heartily used then expected before.(see figure 8) Spacious Almere (8)