New wheel loader in the pink
22/10/2004

A new wheel loader from Marubeni-Komatsu has extended the capacity of a Telford waste management site which handles some 400-500 tonnes of waste a day.

Pink Skips and its slogan ‘Go Green Think Pink’ are synonymous with waste management in Telford and the surrounding Midlands regions that the company serves.  Offering a range of services, from skip hire to total waste management and recycling, Pink Skips is a family business set up by brothers Will and Sheridan Wellings in April, 1998.

The company relocated to it current site in Ketley in February, 2001 and is constantly developing its range of plant and equipment to accommodate the company’s growth.  The latest addition is a WA320-5 Wheel Loader, with full waste specification, supplied by construction equipment specialists Marubeni-Komatsu.  The WA320-5 offers a net horsepower of 124 kW 166HP @ 2,000 rpm, with an operating weight of 14.475kg.   It is working alongside an existing WA320-5 machine, sorting and loading high volume, bulky commercial waste from the constant stream of skips and lorries which visit the site daily.  The new WA320-5 has the optional extra of a Super High Lift Boom, offering a dumping height of 5,280mm, to make loading of the vehicles even easier, with attention also paid to the ‘SpaceCab’ cabin.  As one of the largest in its class, with a frameless window to ensure maximum visibility, the cab has been ergonomically designed to ensure operator comfort and optimum productivity, with air conditioning as standard and viscose shock absorbers which guarantee a low interior sound level.  Shane Evans, Pink Skips’ operator of the new WA320-5, commented –“The cab is great and the longer arm makes it much easier to load.”

Pink Skips handle a wide range of commercial waste, from soil and hardcore to cardboard and plastic, some 80 percent of which is recycled.  Given the throughput of the Telford facility and the fact that a large percentage of the waste is from construction/demolition sites, Pink Skips Director Will Wellings was looking for a machine which was robust.  Will comments – “My preferred choice is Komatsu, whether it is outright purchase or hiring from a local plant equipment company.  We can’t afford downtime – an hour’s breakdown in production takes a half day to get back on top of the situation so reliability from a good solid machine is vital.  The long arm option on the new vehicle is ideal for loading the high sided trailers, really helping us to get through the volume."

Will (26) and his brother Sheridan (37) set up the Pink Skips company in April, 1998, following in the footsteps of their father Joe who ran the Wellings Waste company until 1992 when he retired.

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