A fleet of Toyota forklifts is at the heart of a thriving waste-recycling centre at Sydney Markets.
A Green Point waste-recycling facility started at the markets in 2005 and has since built up its waste-management capacity and, commensurately, its Toyota forklift fleet.
Sydney Markets veteran of 22 years and Green Point facility environment manager, Con Kapellos, said that since the recycling centre's inception, a dramatic reduction in landfill waste has been achieved. “Back then we were only recycling about 17 per cent of our waste. Most of it was going to landfill,” Kapellos said.
“There wasn't much impetus to recycle, then. But we changed our strategy to focus on our main waste-stream, which is organic food, and get it out of landfill. Then we looked at packaging such as cardboard, timber pallets, plastics and polystyrene.”
Kapellos said the recycling system is economically important.
"We are up to about 70 per cent recycling at the moment and we continually strive to improve. If we continued what we were doing before we started in 2005, it would have cost our business $35m in waste going into landfill,” he said.
“We also are very proactive with managing our waste streams. For example, we process polystyrene boxes on site and sell them into Korea as solid bulk material which they make interior building products out of, such as cupboards and architraves, et cetera.”
Sydney Markets stakeholders and Green Point donates approximately 1500 tonnes of fruit and vegetables to Foodbank, every year.
Kapellos said they request that the market tenants give Green Point their food waste already separated.
"We examine it to decide if it's clean and fit for human consumption. If it is, we give it to Foodbank who pass it on to the needy which is a win-win situation for all,” he said.
“Also, some of our organic waste goes freely to farmers for stock-feed, and we've been doing that since day one. The balance of the organic waste is sent to Earthpower, which is an anaerobic digestion facility located at Rosehill, who convert green waste to energy and a fertiliser product.”
Toyota forklifts form the majority of material handling equipment at Sydney Markets, Flemington. Kapellos estimates that about 70 to 80 per cent of the forklifts on the site are Toyotas which are sourced from Toyota Material Handling Australia.
With such an enormous number of Sydney Markets tenant's forklifts working every day on-site, safety is a paramount concern.
“You're working in a place with about 1000 forklifts and the biggest risk is the forklift's safety,” Kapellos said. “Of course, we fear any injuries or, worse, fatalities. Toyota's System of Active Stability (SAS) system is very good for stability and it minimises risk factors such as tipping for our operators. So, Toyota's SAS feature is extremely important and it's a big reason that we buy their forklifts.
“We at the markets are the landlord, so safety is absolutely important on-site. We strive to set the best examples for our tenants by leading the way with best safety practices.
“We have to make sure we operate our forklifts in the safest way and we do that by showing our tenants that we're driving Toyotas with stability control.
“We're also going to install speed-limiters that are linked to a GPS on our latest Toyota Forklift, which when programmed will automatically slow the forklifts to 10 kilometres within certain areas on site. We already have been trialling the speed limiter on another of Toyota Forklifts for the past two years and found it to be very beneficial.”
Toyota Material Handling Australia (TMHA) area sales manager, Michael Tsougranis, said Toyota's exclusive SAS is the first system in the world to monitor and control forklifts through a combination of advanced sensors linked to an on-board controller, enabling assured load-handling performance and, therefore, safety.
“SAS is an absolute cornerstone of the Toyota Advantage," Tsougranis said.
“SAS is vehicle stability control systems in that it significantly contributes to accident-prevention by detecting motion during operation. The SAS computer constantly analyses the potential for a tip-over. If the SAS detects tip-over potential, it sends a signal to the Active Control Rear Stabiliser, which then minimise tip-over potential.
“The SAS safety measures are based on the fact that the stability of a forklift changes constantly due to shifts in the balance of the load, coupled with the speed and turning-rate of the forklift.”
TMHA is a member of the Australian Packaging & Processing Machinery Association (APPMA).
