Since its launch in 2017, the NSW Return and Earn scheme has helped reduce litter by 73% and returned over $72 million to charities and community groups via donations or fees 1.
One such charity partner is the St Vincent De Paul Society NSW, or Vinnies. They’ve been involved since the beginning of the program and currently operate 10 recycling sites.
It’s expected that the Vinnies program alone will help divert 11 billion containers from landfill over the next 20 years.
Sitecraft were proud to support their operations with Australian-made bin tippers that help improve reliability and maintain productivity.
1 Return and Earn breaks record with 13 billion drink containers recycled
Processing thousands of cans and bottles every day is no small task, which is why it takes top-quality equipment to keep the return and earn program at Vinnies NSW running smoothly.
Our team were engaged by Richard O’Keefe, Return and Earn Area Manager NSW, who had been experiencing ongoing equipment challenges and was looking for a more reliable support partner.
“A normal bin lifter might do 5-10 lifts a day, our sites could do 200-250 a day. Some of them, if they’re glass, a glass bin can hold 100-110kg. So, what we’ve experienced with other [equipment] previously is a bowing effect in the frame or the rollers would pop out because of the weight.”
Richard collaborated with Materials Handling Specialist, Daniel Chesterfield, to select a powerful bin tipper for 3 of their high-demand sites.
The Versatip Bin Tipper – 1200mm Tip can lift wheelie bins ranging from 80-240 litres. With an electro-hydraulic tipping mechanism, it’s safe and simple to use by a single operator – helping maintain productivity.
Designed and manufactured in Australia, the Versatip range is available with 3 power source options: battery, single-phase or three-phase.
At Sitecraft, we recognise that every workplace is unique. To help ensure Vinnies NSW had the exact equipment required for their operations, Daniel provided an on-site demo of our standard units.
“When we first met with Daniel, I met him on-site with one of my colleagues and we talked about what we wanted to do. The number of lifts we needed to do per day, what the average weight would be, the height. Daniel was able to almost purpose-design and build the units that we now have in our site,” explains Richard.
Daniel recommended single-phase units with no doors to support the space constraints and high-volume operations that are unique to Richard’s worksites.
No matter what time of year it is, Sitecraft always maintain capacity to support our customers. This proved invaluable when one of our new units experienced a small issue heading in to the busy festive season.
“When one of the units began repeatedly going into overload, we acted quickly—sending out a technician each time, even though the diagnostics didn’t show any clear fault. We stayed on it, escalating the issue internally and working closely with the client to monitor performance and make sure they felt supported and confident using the equipment.” explains Daniel.
After a thorough review by our technical team, the issue was found to be caused by an operator-related error. To help prevent it from recurring, we installed an additional limit switch, effectively resolving the problem and giving the team added peace of mind.
“They’ve been using the units daily in a high-volume logistics environment – and more than six months in, they haven’t had a single further issue. That kind of reliability is rare with this type of workload which is a strong validation of our design.” says Daniel.
As Richard notes, it was a high level of service, “I’ve got nothing but total praise for Daniel from a sales perspective and even the service guys, I think they’ve been exceptional.”
With the units performing well and the dedicated after-sales support, Richard has full confidence in our team for the future.
“I honestly do talk to a number of other clients in the waste industry, and I always speak highly of Sitecraft – that they are our preferred choice. We’re now planning to work with them across other areas of our business as well.”
With over 30 years’ experience in materials handling equipment, we know the difference the right equipment can make. It’s about more than efficiency – it’s about creating better, safer workplaces. To start your project, call our team on 1300 363 152 or submit your enquiry on the website.