Stars align for Suffolk’s new recycling vehicles

The stars were aligned as the worlds of art, literature, music and celebrity came together to grace the new fleet of recycling trucks following a competition by Suffolk County Council and its waste management partner FCC Environment asking residents to name them.

And the public did not disappoint with their choices as the following names has real star quality.

• Bincent Van Gogh which was named by Trudy Neill
• Binjamin Britten named by Panda Laughlin
• Binny Doherty named by Sasha Watson
• Dustbin Bieber named by Kirsten Fullam
• Debris Harry named by Rachel Goldsmith
• Ed Sheerbin named by Justin Miller
• Oprah Binfree named by Alex Smitten

And there is one extra special name, agreed upon by the eight drivers who are behind the wheels of these special vehicles and that is Recyclatron which was chosen by Milly, age 5, daughter of driver Scott Edgar.

They were having a family dinner and trying to come up with names for the lorries, they were trying to find names that had something to do with recycling and were thinking of the transformer films when Milly suddenly shouted out RECYCLATRON!

The state-of-the-art vehicles, which are now proudly carrying their new names, will move bulked-up household recyclables, garden material and black bag rubbish around the county and beyond to be recycled or converted into energy at Suffolk’s waste processing facilities.

Some of our other winners shared how they came to chose their entries.

Trudy Neill, who entered Bincent Van Gough, came up with the name while on a train to London.

She was having a conversation with her friend about the competition and some youngsters kids behind them started suggesting names. The rest of the carriage caught on and started shouting out names to her so she took the best few and entered them.

Sasha Watson entered Binny Doherty because she loves naming competitions and recently won a competition to name a gritter lorry.

This time she was trying to find names that were associated Suffolk people or places and thought of Binny Doherty after Jimmy Doherty, the owner of Jimmy’s Farm.

The fleet has cost a total of £1.5 million and consists of Mercedes Actros tractor units towing Legras articulated trailers.

They will operate from Suffolk County Council waste facilities at Lowestoft, Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds, and can carry up to 25 tonnes of material at a time.

The new vehicles will be put to a variety of uses:

• Three blue trucks will carry recycling to be separated into bales of plastic, aluminium, steel, card and paper before being transformed into new materials.
• Three green trucks will take garden waste to be composted into a soil improver to help farmland by enriching the soil.
• Two black trucks will be used for taking away waste that cannot be recycled, with messaging urging residents to cut down on single use plastic, plan meals to avoid food waste, and to compost fruit and vegetable peelings to help reduce waste.

The trucks may not always contain the type of waste the vehicle says it is carrying as they may be used to collect other forms of refuse should the operational need arise.

The vehicles took to the roads in April and are the final piece in Suffolk’s network of waste transfer stations, which are used to bulk up the waste and recycling collected by district and borough collection vehicles from homes across Suffolk.

Larger trucks mean more waste can be carried, which in turn reduces the number of miles it is transported before reaching its sorting or reprocessing facilities.

The new vehicles feature optimised driving, allowing the on-board GPS system to anticipate the local conditions and automatically select the best driving mode to give maximum fuel efficiency and helping reduce driver fatigue.

They also feature sophisticated exhaust systems to reduce emissions and a built-in ‘anti-collision’ system.

Councillor Richard Smith, Suffolk County Council Cabinet Member for Economic Development, Transport Strategy and Waste, said:

“We asked the public to get their thinking caps on and unleash their creativity and they did not disappoint!

“I congratulate the winners for coming up with names that will identify a fleet of lorries that will be hard at work for the people of Suffolk for many years to come.”

Steve Longdon, Operations Director for FCC Environment, said:

“It is always great when the public get involved and knowing these vehicles were given their names by the residents they will serve is wonderful, some really amazing choices in there spanning many years of culture.

“We hope that now they are officially named, when residents see them on the roads that they will provide inspiration to recycle ever more.”