40yr Old Bollegraaf HBC50 Waste Baler Still Going Strong in Dunkerque, France : A Millon Bales and Still Running…
Turn back the hands of time to 1980, and a HBC50 waste baler left the Bollegraaf factory in Appingedam to start its career in card, paper, plastics and aluminium baling with its first owner, Gero Genemuiden. Today it lives in Dunkerque and has produced over 1 million bales.
Gero used the baler for over 19 years, but in 1999, following a retrofit, it was sold to Triselec Dunkerque, which has been using it ever since.
According to Bollegraaf, ‘durability’ is the keyword. To achieve this the company noted that its machines are finished with a water-based paint, and designed to have the lowest achievable energy consumption, the longest possible life cycle, and the highest residual value in the market. It holds the HBC50 baler currently in service at Triselec in Dunkerque as living proof.
France, 1989
In 1989, the urban community of Dunkerque became innovators in France with the creation of the first large-scale selective collection and a truly industrial sorting centre. Situated in Petite-Synthe in Dunkerque, France’s first waste-sorting site enables Triselec to concentrate on its core business: the manual and mechanical processing of recyclable household waste.
The Dunkerque sorting centre handles approximately 20,000 tonnes of waste per year, with an authorised capacity of 30,000 tonnes per annum.
Serge Roulez, head of Research and Development concluded:
“The HBS50 is easy to maintain and operate. It’s a reliable piece of equipment! On average, the baler operates six days a week, every week of the year. The machine produces approximately 80 bales per day, and has already created 1 million bales since leaving the factory.
“The combination of professional preventive maintenance, a high-quality product, and skilled operators results in a baler that’s up to the task (almost) every day."
