The Christmas season is a special time of the year; a time for reflection, generosity and giving. FareShare in Yorkshire, UK, is a charity that is dedicated to and works hard in this spirit all year round. FareShare distributes surplus food, and it was a challenge to handle all the cardboard packaging and plastic baskets that the food is delivered in. Now it saves valuable volunteer hours and storage space thanks to the newly installed Orwak baler.
Brings good quality surplus food to charities
FareShare is the UK’s national network of charitable food redistributors and is made up of 18 independent organizations. Together, they take good quality surplus food from across the food industry and get it to charities across the UK, including school breakfast clubs, older people’s lunch clubs, homeless shelters, and community cafes.
FareShare in Yorkshire is one of those organizations and it distributes surplus food from large retailers to 400 charities and community groups enabling 5.4 million meals every year. Orwak Easi UK has worked closely with the team to help them deal with recyclable waste.
Challenging packaging waste from food deliveries
FareShare, like many businesses and charities, found the cardboard handling challenging. The cardboard was being stored in tonne bags (bulk bags) and took up storage space. It also required manual work and a lot of volunteer time breaking the boxes down.
Fruit and vegetables are often delivered in plastic baskets, which were stacked and had to be stored until volunteers had sufficient time or space to return the baskets to the distributors or drop them off at recycling centers.
Baling for recycling saves volunteer hours and storage space
Orwak Easi UK successfully introduced the Orwak Compact 3120 baler, which allows FareShare and its volunteers to bale the cardboard and crush the plastic baskets into neat and tidy bales. These bales are then collected by a recycling company.
The installation of the Orwak baler not only saves FareShare valuable volunteer hours, which can now be used to focus on helping with the distribution, it also saves space; space that can be used more effectively to support the charity work. Terry Thackrah and Matthew Gregory from Orwak Easi UK’s sales team went along after the installation and volunteered for the day to help with the backlog of waste.
Terry Thackrah and Matthew Gregory from Orwak Easi UK volunteered for the day
Perfect where space matters
The results are striking and the bale production of both cardboard and plastic helps save time and space.
Matthew Denison at FareShare Yorkshire comments; “We have been using the Orwak Compact 3120 in our small warehouse for a number of weeks. It has quickly become one of the most valuable pieces of equipment we have! The baler delivers impressive compaction and takes up relatively little floor space. This is perfect for an operation like ours where every bit of space matters.”
The loading process is straightforward, and the daily use of the machine is simple for all the staff, including those new to the equipment.
Best baler features and benefits in summary
- The machine’s operation is quiet and energy-efficient
- There is no disruption to the core work of the business
- Quick cycle time
- Material back-ups are kept to a minimum
- The bale size is very manageable and easy to store or transport
- This has helped us keep our waste/yard area far more organized
Matthew Denison concludes: “Overall, the Orwak Compact 3120 baler is practical, efficient, and user-friendly. So far it has delivered an excellent performance, and our cardboard and plastic waste streams have been transformed since installation! I would have no hesitation in recommending it to any small/medium business looking to streamline their waste handling”
Orwak as well as Orwak Easi feel inspired by the amazing work that FoodShare does. This charity makes a difference and improves so many lives, and we are grateful and proud that our compaction equipment can make everyday life and work easier for the volunteers and the organization.