Complete Utilities win NJUG Sustainability Award

Gloucestershire firm beats blue-chip companies to win national sustainability award with DUO wash plant

NATIONAL Joint Utilities Group (NJUG), the UK’s only trade association for street works issues, have held their annual awards ceremony in House of Commons Members’ Dining Room, hosted by Louise Ellman MP, chair of the Transport Select Committee (right of picture).

The awards were designed to recognize, promote and reward instances of best practice within the street works industry, with all winning entries to be used as examples of best practice and distributed throughout the industry.

Complete Utilities, a Gloucestershire-based firm that provides excavation, backfilling and reinstatement services to the utilities industry, were one of four companies shortlisted for the NJUG Sustainability Award. The award recognizes the company’s work in maximizing the sustainable use of materials with its recycling wash plant supplied by DUO Equipment.

The two main components of the wash plant are a Powerscreen Aggwash unit – an award winner in its own right having picked up the Series Innovation category award at the 2010 World Demolition Awards – and a DUO mobile water-treatment plant.

The Aggwash provides the first-time rinsing, screening, scrubbing and sand-washing capabilities on a single transportable chassis, and Complete Utilities run their unit at 50–60 tonnes/h to process material for backfilling and remediation purposes.

DUO’s mobile water-treatment solution complements the Aggwash by eliminating silt and dispatching water to a lagoon. The centrifuge-based system is of compact size relative to its production levels, which was a necessity in the design of the installation due to space restrictions on site.

This closed-circuit system produces a very manageable material with a low moisture content, which is vital to Complete Utilities in ensuring it is workable for blending as clean soils as well as allowing any surplus to be transportable to, and accepted by, landfill and tipping sites.

Complete Utilities, who were shortlisted alongside Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions, Laing O’Rourke and North London Gas Alliance, won the award with their wash plant which delivers a recycling rate of almost 100% and provides financial, legislative and environmental benefits.

Taking into consideration landfill costs, the cost of replacement primary aggregate for trench backfill and including the high capital investment of the new plant system, the company says it can still match the landfill and replacement aggregate costs when recycling trench spoil into a high-quality aggregate product.

With regard to legislation, the recycling operation exceeds the target of ‘Halving Waste to Landfill by 2012’ and can also realistically achieve ‘Zero Waste to Landfill’.

From an environmental perspective, the operation means less landfilling of trenching spoil, less demand for primary aggregate and a reduction in carbon emissions as haulage distances are reduced. The carbon savings on Type 1 alone in the first six months are around 6 tonnes.

Commenting on the award, Complete Utilities’ managing director, Steve Chaplin (left of picture), said: ‘It is great to get national recognition for the work we do – we’re committed to environmental issues, minimizing our waste and recycling as much as possible.

‘This award shows how the hard work of my team and our recycling plant make a real difference. I’m particularly delighted given how tough the competition was. The investment in the Aggwash has definitely taken our business to the next level.’

DUO sales manager Luke Talbot, who worked on the project, added: ‘It’s great that the efforts of Steve and the rest of the Complete Utilities team have been recognized. We’re pleased to be associated with their success and look forward to helping other customers achieve similar success in the future.’