Why Grundon think agility will define success for modern MRFs

The longer we spoke with Owen, the clearer the sector’s future became: the next generation of recovery facilities will face more demanding regulation and more volatile market conditions. To keep up, they’ll need to adapt faster than they have in the past.

We asked Owen for his perspective on what’s driving those changes:

Sampling regulation demands innovation

New materials facility sampling requirements are around the corner, and will mean that organisations like Grundon have to report on material as soon as it arrives at transfer stations.

With the first year of extended producer responsibility (EPR) reporting soon to follow, waste organisations face a significant increase in mandatory data collection. With that said, a lack of regulatory clarity has meant that investment in scaling the sampling effort has been slow.

In Owen’s words:

We can’t report on that scale manually — waste organisations need to automate as much of the sampling process as possible.

There’s been a lack of investment over the last seven years, because we need equipment that will match legislation.’’

Thankfully, the Environment Agency (EA) recently announced that sampling can be automated using AI waste analytics systems. Owen thinks that clarity will unblock investment in automated sampling:

I think we’re going to see a huge amount of tech deployment over the next 18 months as increased sampling finally comes into effect.”

Deposit return schemes (DRS) will impact MRF supply

EA reporting isn’t the only regulatory challenge Owen is planning for, though: the UK’s DRS scheme will arrive ahead of schedule, and could recapture around 80% of aluminium cans and PET bottles.

Those materials are already widely recycled, and represent a significant proportion of many MRFs’ waste — and income — streams. In order to fill the revenue gaps left by that material, MRFs will also need to extract as much value as possible from the material that remains.

Grundon’s team believe it’s another indicator that facilities need to become more flexible:

Infeed composition is continuously changing, but many of today’s recovery systems are fairly rigid. The MRFs of the future need to be agile enough to adapt as infeed materials and market conditions change more dramatically.”

Volatile resource markets require efficient operations

While secondary resources like recycled fibre and metal have remained relatively stable, Owen and the Grundon team have seen the price of secondary plastics like rPET fluctuate wildly in the last year:

Ultimately, these materials are commodities. They’re affected by geopolitics, and by the recent economic instability around the world.

We've seen some plastics drop from £550 to £300/tonne – to accommodate those dips, we need to make sure we're recovering material as efficiently as possible.”

How Grundon is responding with leaner operations

While regulatory delays and inconsistent market conditions that have hampered wider waste sector investment, Owen has continued to prioritise innovation with a clear goal in mind:

I’d like to see the waste management industry mirror developments in other manufacturing businesses by embracing leaner operations.

Despite uncertainty about compliance requirements, we're going to need technology that can support legislation without sacrificing productivity. It's a bit of a ‘build it and they will come’ situation!”

The Grundon team haven’t waited to start building the MRF — and waste management organisation — of the future. Towards the end of our Q&A, Owen shared some exciting examples of the technology they’re using to respond to today’s challenges, and prepare for tomorrow’s:

Maximising plant capacity — and a £2.5m investment — with AI waste analytics

After recognising the need to become more efficient at extracting value from waste material, Owen and the Grundon team adopted Greyparrot Analyzer early in its development. Since then, they’ve used Analyzer insights to monitor facility performance and identify opportunities for more efficient operations.

Almost five years later, Analyzer insights are still revealing surprising new ways to boost plant productivity:

We weren’t able to track whether we were making the most of our conveyor belt capacity until we started investigating the ‘belt running empty’ data from Analyzer.

That data revealed that material flow wasn’t as consistent as we had thought. This gave us the data we needed to invest in a new metering bin which has in turn unlocked significant additional throughput without sacrificing on the material output quality.”

With the volatile future of material supply and demand in mind, Owen and his team were able to make a clear business case for sorting automation that will increase their processing power:

We wouldn’t have spotted this opportunity without Greyparrot, but it’s become a major driver in our £2.5 million investment plan for facility upgrades.”

A Greyparrot Analyzer unit deployed at Grundon's MRF

Smart collections vehicles drive lower insurance costs

Grundon’s operations extend beyond the recovery facility to transfer stations, and collections infrastructure — and Owen believes their lean philosophy should, too.

As he explained, insurance is a constant challenge for waste management organisations:

MRFs are incredibly difficult and expensive to insure thanks to fire risks. Anything we can do to reduce insurance costs elsewhere in our business is a vital part of running a lean waste management business.”

To that end, Grundon have recently adopted computer vision technology outside of their facilities, outfitting collections vehicles with an AI system that provides drivers with live feedback and safety guidance.

It’s a win-win for us — we’re able to improve health and safety for our drivers, and will significantly reduce the costs associated with accidents. In addition, its helping
us adapt driving styles which in turn is improving our fuel efficiency and subsequent environmental impacts”

The next five years

As regulation tightens and market conditions continue to shift, Owen believes that waste management organisations like Grundon need to build data-driven adaptability into their foundations:

The skills profile needed for the waste sector is changing. We’re going to need to upskill ourselves to interpret the new influx of data we’re getting from technology like AI waste analytics.

We'll also need to work even more closely with AI providers to ensure we're fully leveraging the insights on offer.”

When asked about acting on those insights, Owen returned to the next generation of agile, responsive MRFs, and investment guided by detailed waste data:

AI waste analytics has revealed the full value on offer in our waste streams, but rigid recovery processes can make it difficult to act on that insight.

The MRF of the future needs to be flexible enough to support a feedback loop that measures performance, adjusts, and improves.”