From waste to resource: How our technology is helping HydroVac close the loop

Key numbers:
·      300m3 waste processed a day
·      120,000l water recycled daily
·      60% waste diverted from landfill

For HydroVac, the problem was straightforward: hydroexcavation operations generate a lot of waste. Every day, HydroVac’s trucks return from construction and infrastructure sites carrying a mixture of soil, rock, sand, clay, concrete slurry and water. Traditionally, much of that material would have gone to landfill – creating an environmental burden and an ongoing disposal cost.

“We’d been looking at the waste problem for a long time and asking ourselves whether there was a better way to deal with it,” says HydroVac’s GM, Dave Coutts. “We didn’t want to just accept that everything had to go to landfill. We wanted to find a way to recover the material and put it back to work.”

The answer was HydroVac’s Materials Recycling Plant, a groundbreaking custom-designed facility incorporating GN Solids technology, supplied by Trenchmate.

The West Auckland plant separates hydroexcavation waste, stormwater and concrete slurry waste into reusable resources including water, rock, sand and clay. Those materials are then given a second life in applications including construction, drainage, landscaping and turf.

The plant can process up to 300m³ of waste a day, while producing around 120,000 litres of recycled water daily. Approximately 60% of incoming waste is diverted from landfill.

“The volumes are significant,” says Coutts. “We’re processing up to 300 cubic metres a day, and being able to recover around 60% of that material rather than sending it to landfill makes a huge difference.”

The recovered water is reused in HydroVac’s own hydroexcavation trucks, eliminating the company’s reliance on town water. Recovered materials such as sand, rock and clay can be reused in construction and landscaping applications.

For HydroVac, the plant is about more than reducing its own environmental footprint. It has become a solution the company can offer to its customers and other operators.

More than 30 external contractors now use the facility, giving them an affordable and responsible alternative to traditional disposal. Importantly, HydroVac’s plant dumping rates are price-matched to standard clearfill rates, meaning customers can choose a more circular disposal solution without paying extra.

“That was important to us,” says Coutts. “Sustainability shouldn’t have to mean paying a premium. If we can make the responsible option accessible and commercially realistic, more people will use it.”

The plant’s performance is measured through a weighbridge and load-tracking system, allowing HydroVac to track every load processed and quantify the volume diverted from landfill. The company is also developing reporting that will allow customers to see the environmental impact of their own waste disposal.

The HydroVac project demonstrates what is possible when separation technology is applied to a real-world waste challenge at commercial scale.

For HydroVac, it has fundamentally changed the way the business thinks about waste.

“We’ve gone from looking at hydrovac waste as something we have to get rid of to seeing it as a resource,” says Coutts. “We’re recovering materials, reusing water, helping our customers with their sustainability goals and creating another part of the business at the same time.”

To arrange a site visit to see the HydroVac Waste Recycling Plant in action, contact your relevant Trenchmate sales rep and we’ll tee up a time to show you.