PMG Services has doubled down on sustainability by making its second purchase of a CDE waste recycling plant. Aggregates Business Editor Guy Woodford took a close-up look during a CDE open house event hosted at PMG Services’ impressive new company headquarters.
Clare McGuinness is excited about the future of PMG Services (PMG). The family-owned and operated business’s Managing Director has every right to be given PMG’s very impressive new HQ in Severn Beach, 10 miles northwest of Bristol. At its heart is a new 25 tonnes per hour (tph) CDE waste recycling plant solution, part of PMG’s ‘zero-to-landfill‘ movement, which is setting the firm up for a new era of success.
“We’re on a journey to process even more waste across the southwest of England. Our vision is to keep growing the waste processing capability at PMG and be able to divert more valuable material from landfill,“ says Clare. “We’re a family-run business with over 35 years of experience, and in that time, there has been a lot of change and investment.”
For over a decade, PMG operated a 10tph CDE waste recycling plant setup at the company’s former site in Albert Road, behind Bristol Temple Meads train station. Clare explains that this enabled a better understanding of CDE’s new waste recycling plant technology.
“We’d outgrown our previous city centre site and needed to move to a new one. During the early stages of this investment, we ensured that the design and layout were tailored specifically to our operation, such as making the plant quite compact and allowing as much automation as possible. An example of this is the automated liquid feed into the plant, which was previously a manual process.
“As we were doubling the size of the operation, we also wanted to consider wider yard operations and traffic flow around the site. To gain a better understanding, we visited a few reference sites across the UK.
“It can be difficult to process the gully waste and road sweeping waste we’re working with, so with the new design, we were able to prioritise access to ensure that the operation and maintenance of the plant is easier, and so that we can continue to optimise the solution going forward.”
Clare explains that a significant amount of PMG’s waste material is recovered by the company’s vehicles, with a growing amount brought in from third parties, such as councils and other road sweeper and tanker companies.
“We service a lot of housebuilders, groundworks contractors, and councils. We may collect waste from a construction site customer, and the same customer is then taking it back as PMG recycled sand for use in a building project. It’s a fantastic circular economy.
“We have a 62-strong vehicle fleet and cover Gloucester down to Taunton and into South Wales with our road sweepers. We also have a depot in Swindon, which enables us to extend our service to Oxfordshire. Here at Severn Beach, we are open from 6:00 am to 5:30 pm, Monday through Friday. We can also open on Saturday and Sunday by appointment, and when we have night shifts booked, we can be open for tipping then as well.”
Designed for what Clare says is a decade-long PMG growth plan, the new CDE waste recycling plant comprises a R1500, one of CDE’s R-Series primary scalping screens, an AggMax scrubbing and classification system, an EvoWash sand washing system and an AquaCycle high-rate thickener and static screen.
When the tanker or road sweeper arrives on-site, it allows the water to drain out of the body into the pit, removing any solids or lightweight organics using a bespoke PMG-designed system. The remaining liquid contents are then pumped automatically into the AggMax.
Once the truck has released the liquid, it will then discharge all the solid waste, such as road sweepings. This waste is then loaded into the R1500, where oversized material will begin to be processed. Anything under 80 millimetres will continue to the AggMax, which is eventually passed to the EvoWash.
All material that remains in the liquid and can’t be removed through solid removal is sent to water treatment. Any sludge is then sent to a centrifuge, where the silt is removed to ensure process efficiency.
The water gets returned to the system for further processing through the AquaCycle, which recycles up to 90% of the process water for immediate re-use in the system.
The solution enables PMG to produce two products: a 5-25mm aggregate and a 0-5 mm sand product for use in Bristol’s construction market.
“We’ve built in the ability to add a third deck in the screener so that we can have the option of producing another stone size,“ adds Clare.
PMG’s recycled aggregates and washed sand are mainly used in earthworks, but also meet the specifications for highway works, pipe bedding, and cable laying.
With strict regulations on waste products that can be sent to landfill, there is a pressing need to turn gully waste and road sweeping waste into an opportunity.
Under European landfill regulations, liquid waste consisting of road sweepings with a water or liquid content of 10% or more can no longer be sent to landfill. In turn, this presents a challenge for disposing of this waste.
According to the Mineral Products Association (MPA), the UK’s market share of recycled aggregates is three times higher than the European average, highlighting the increased importance of repurposing waste.
Clare notes that PMG’s operation not only supports sustainability objectives but also generates new revenue streams to benefit the local economy.
“This was an investment that we had been thinking of for several years, and we are delighted to see the plant in action. We’re proud to be recovering this material to transform it into high-value materials for the local industry. We’ve also been taking on people over the past year to prepare for this next business step.”
After a year living and working in Australia, Clare joined the family business in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I studied civil engineering at university and had worked on the other side of this business as a contractor working on major projects such as Crossrail and Thames Tideway. I understand the pains inherent in construction sites and the need to offer a seamless service to customers.”
Commenting on PMG’s relationship with CDE, she adds: “It’s been great. The CDE people visiting us are extremely knowledgeable. If they are making a minor change to the plant, they also ensure the whole plant is running as well as it can. They are very proactive and really helpful.”
Joining Clare and the CDE team to welcome customers and dealers at the 11-12 June open house event were her father, PMG founder and Director Pat McGuinness, and her brother, Paul McGuinness, PMG’s Technical Lead. Clare’s mother, Bernie, who, along with Pat, is originally from Ireland, played a key role in building PMG’s finance function and continues to support the business today.
“We’ve had a very good relationship with CDE throughout the last 10 years or so,“ says Pat. “About two years ago, we wanted to invest and move to a bigger site, as our site by Bristol Temple Meads station was only 0.6 acres. This new site spans 6.5 acres, and we already have 4 acres of planning approval for the waste recycling plant, office premises, storage facilities, lorry parking, and other amenities. We have more room to tip off and can accept more material deliveries on site at any one time. We’ve got good customers, and they’ve all come with us to this new facility.“
“We learnt a lot from the first CDE plant and worked closely with them on designing the new one,” says Paul. “Their engineers have been with us these first few months of operation, fine-tuning the plant. You always get a few teething issues, but it’s been running well. We’re happy.”
Speaking about CDE’s new waste recycling plant installation for PMG Services, Fergal Campbell, the Cookstown, Northern Ireland-headquartered company’s Key Accounts Manager, says: “This type of material is challenging and costly to dispose of, but PMG identified the opportunity in this space over a decade ago, and since then, they’ve continued to push boundaries and invest in the right technology to divert even more material from landfill.
“With depletion of virgin materials across the world, there’s a greater need now more than ever to turn today’s waste into tomorrow’s resource, and we will continue to champion the vital service that PMG is providing for the local industry.”
