UK – This year, new regulations for waste collection passed by the UK government under the Environment Act 2021 came into effect. Under this act, organisations and businesses are now obligated to separate their food waste from general rubbish and send it for recycling (through composting or anaerobic digestion). This change in the law brings England into line with devolved rules enforced earlier in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. At the Resource & Waste Management Expo –one of four shows presented under the ‘Environmental Services & Solutions Expo’ banner at the NEC Birmingham between 11-12 September – I was informed that the new law was already impacting the market for waste collection truck bodies and equipment. Spokesmen for various companies told me that they were selling trucks geared primarily towards food waste recycling. Another pressure on the market is the eventual ban on petrol and diesel vehicles; outside the show hall, multiple manufacturers, old and new, displayed urban waste vehicles with battery electric drivelines. 

One of the smaller manufacturers present at the show was Macpac Refuse Bodies Ltd from Antrim in Northern Ireland. The product on display was a ‘Macpac 110’, a waste collection body with a sideloading bin lift, entirely designed and made by the company. The 110 has a capacity of 11-cubic-metres and a payload between 4 and 8.5 tonnes. It can be mounted on chassis weighing between 10 and 16 tonnes: the body on show was installed on a DAF LF 230, and a spokesman informed T&BB that 9 out of 10 of the company’s truck bodies end up on DAF chassis.