Globalink Investments 
Waste Management Integrated Technology
Waste Management is a vast and complex issue that plagues the world today. With the ever increasing population, the waste generated is astronomical with no respite, only grows exponentially.
The Problem
Six billion tonnes of organic waste is generated annually world wide and most is dumped as landfill.
Disposing of this waste is an ever increasing significant cost to business, government and society. Putrescible organic waste produces unacceptable high level emissions of “greenhouse gas” through methane production and contributes to groundwater pollution and site contamination.
Increasing transport and disposal costs, government initiatives and community consciousness are strong drivers to identify and implement cost effective alternatives. Current agricultural practices rely heavily on the use of inorganic chemical fertilisers, which are expensive and result in decreasing soil health. Recent trends show an increasing demand for organically grown produce and the consequent expanding need for high quality organic composts.
The Solution
This sustainable process transfers the costs of disposal to production of value-added, marketable compost. The company provides a patented, simple, low cost modular in-vessel system based on a 12 metre sea container. The company has also registered a process flow patent application which includes waste water treatment, front end power generation, composting and hot house agriculture.
The Envirotainer
The Envirotainer is a rotating, aerated 13-metre vessel, which accelerates and optimises composting in controlled, minimal odour conditions. It is able to compost approximately 2,000 tonne per year of organic waste converting it into valuable compost, assuming a 7-day retention cycle.
2000 tonnes per annum equals approximately 38 tonnes per week, 6-7 tonnes per day. This amount on a 7-day retention cycle using alternate bins in the tumbler will produce approximately 40cubic meters per week of compost.
The gear wheel is currently driven by a 1.1kw electric motor connected to a reduction gearbox, which turns the TumbleTainer at the maximum rate of one revolution in 40 minutes. The option to use a hydraulic drive also exists and remote power from a tractor would rotate the vessel much faster.
Rotation is only used to keep the air passages in the compost open. Speed of rotation is not critical to the composting process. Input and output fans force air in and duct out hot moist gases (mostly CO2) which are optionally passed through a bio-filter to control odours.
Although originally built using a standard shipping container, the Envirotainer is now a custom designed and manufactured vessel, strengthened for the purpose with an option of a dividing panel to provide continuous daily service for smaller users.
The internal steel surface is coated with a marine grade anticorrosion surface. Output from the Envirotainer has been independently tested by Murdoch University, Western Australia and was found to meet standards for industrial quality composting.
Designed for a large, growing and under-serviced market
The Envirotainer is flexible enough to meet the needs of small-scale users and communities and medium scale operators.
Particularly they are ideal for agribusinesses such as dairies and salmon-farms; civil use including hospitals, apartment blocks and other high-density areas; rural and regional communities and smaller scale industries for which the major waste-management technologies available are neither appropriate nor cost effective.
The Envirotainer requires only 2,000–4,000 tonnes per unit per annum to work at capacity, (on a 3–4 day cycle) and can work on less. Units can easily be scaled-up to significantly increase capacity.
This level of production capacity in increasing modules as required enables The Company to assist a significant and rapidly growing market segment which currently has limited options.
Container Parks are suitable for regional waste disposal, waste management operators, and high volume commercial operations.
The modular design of Envirotainer’s means they can handle any capacity, with flexibility to add modules in response to demand.
Container Parks are virtually silent, odour free, and non-polluting, and require minimal maintenance and power. Module working life is 20 years with scheduled replacement of some components.
Container Parks deliver immediate and ongoing cost benefits, while converting a waste problem into an environmentally positive outcome.
The Container Park
Container Park Advantages
Highly cost effective:
- The product range is keenly priced to secure strong market share of low to medium-scale organic waste producers. In many models the products can be revenue generating.
Low land requirements:
- A relatively small amount of land is required to accommodate products.
No transport costs:
- Transport costs represent one of the most significant problems in waste disposal and compost production. Distance to markets and landfill sites represent a significant proportion of production and disposal costs.
Because Envirotainer’s require so little land, they can be installed on-site and used to dispose of organic waste and generate compost.
The by-product of warm, moist gases can be easily vented, fed through the optional biofilter or used to accelerate plant growth in associated hot houses depending on each client’s requirements.
Use of by-products to accelerate plant growth:
- The Envirotainer is designed to operate effectively in climates as diverse as the Middle East, Canada, Australia and Singapore. In cold climates the hot, moist CO2 gas outputs, can be ducted from the Envirotainer into plant production facilities. The additional benefit of heat and moisture is of particular interest to farmers using intensive methods of production under glass or plastic, seeking to take advantage of accelerated plant growth.
Minimal Odours:
- The products ensure low environmental impacts from odours or other contaminants.
Ease of scale-up:
- The modular format of both products ensures ease of scale-up, from single to multiple units, to any required processing volume.
Effective time management:
- A full time staff member could manage 20 Envirotainer units, therefore provide a highly time effective means of managing organic waste and producing high-grade compost. For one unit no more than 2 hours per day is required.
Product revenue generation:
The Envirotainer has the potential to generate revenue for their owners and/or operators through various income streams.