Are your Waste Operations Wasting your Budget?
When I visit a job site I always find myself surprised at how many of us don’t think through our operations. The trash operations is one of those places. Despite it being ubiquitous in Construction, it seems people just accept, “This is how it’s done.” instead of recognizing how it can be improved. I want to help show you how your Waste Operations are Wasting your Budget. And how we can help.
Tower Crane Operators Perspective
I was a tower crane operator for part of my career. Taking out the trash with a crane is something that happens probably four times a day with a crane as an average. We generate waste in construction. Often people use Skip Pans to take out that trash. Sometimes they use a clamshell. Both have different problems. Because of human decisions, both would have people going to the dumpster to work latches or rigging so the crane could dump out the bin. It can be time consuming. The licensed rigger is on say floor 20 and they need to come down to the ground to guide the crane trash bin into the dumpster, then work the rigging or latches. Then after it’s empty, they’ll be going back to the roof to again land it. This can easily be a five minute process each way. This, at $500 per hour for the crane and crew. So it’s $83 per trash run if that data is close. If you have an automated bin and the operator can see the dumpster, They can do it alone with one of our crane trash bins.
The Dangers of Today’s Crane Trash Operations
The need to work latches and rigging cause people to get into dumpsters. It’s not a safe place to be. Arguably, it’s a confined space. 8’ steel walls aren’t easy to scale. Falling off of them from the top is a bit of a risk. Fall in and it’s on sharps and other hazards. Fall out and it’s usually down to a surface such as asphalt. An Automated Crane Trash Bin can keep people out of harms way.
When I was in cranes, this is what we had as the most modern solution. The safety latch would confuse riggers into using it during hoisting operations, despite that not being what it was for. I state this clearly, because I was the importer. And I’ve sold three brands of boat skips like these. The safety latch exists to protect against the bale arm falling on someone.
We’ve designed our bale arm to be safely laying down when not hooked up to the crane. Removing a safety item actually makes people safer in this case.
Another hazard we solve is with regard to Clamshell designs getting over stuffed with long items. This can prevent the clamshell designs to not want to open. The longer items won’t allow it to open up due to the geometry inside. Our bins are wide enough that virtually nothing could get stuck unless it was exactly the same width and stuffed into place.
Partially open and unlatched. Human error due to overstuffing the bin with long items.
Automated Crane Trash Bins give you the best opportunity in crane trash bin operations to be fast. I have video of one of our bins dumping out in under 2 minutes with no assistance from the rigger. And this is just our Semi Automated version. In most cases it would take a rigger more than two minutes to get to the dumpster. Keep in mind that savings is happening at $8 per minute vs your current method. Let’s say it’s 1 minute saved per trash cycle and there are an average of two per day 5 days a week. Over the course of a year, that’s a savings for $4000. This is on a bin that will last at least 10 years. An automated trash bin will return 5 to 10x on your investment quite easily.
Waste in Forklift Trash Operations
When it comes to Forklift Trash Operations, I see practices that are really expensive relative to what’s possible. We work with what we know. If that tool is a Plastic Commercial Tipper like those in the photo below, you need a way to dump them out efficiently. Commonly, you’ll see people double handling trash. The waste is incredible this way. If your cost is $40 per hour for this labor and you cause a 10% drag, or six minutes lost every hour, the cost of this inefficiency annually is $8800 per year per person. So on a highrise project, are we talking about losing $80,000 due to not having the right tools? I would say, “Pretty easily.”
Large entity clearing out trash for a large trade show. Double handling the trash due to the wrong tool.
Commercial Tipper Alternative
If your operations are using a truck tipper, then we have an alternative. Wheelie Bins are commonly sold in the rest of the world. They have all of the advantages of a plastic tipper. Narrow to fit through doors. Plastic so they aren’t as damaging to finished product as steel. They are light. And in our case, they are affordable. Commercial tippers can cost $1000 or ever $2000 for plastic. Wheelie Bins are easy to find for $200. The hard part is tipping them out. We have a hydraulic tipper that keeps the people out of the trash handling business. If you have wheelie bins you can buy more of them (5x compared to tippers) and then dump them out with our Hydraulic tipper. No human injuries and no time wasted on double handling. Let’s be honest, no one should be asking people to manually handle trash. It should always be mechanized.
Low Tippers as the Receptacle
Our 2012 Tipper is low. It’s under three feet tall at the front lip. Most commercial tippers are 4’ tall at the front lip. The result is you can dump right into the 2012’s. With a 2 yard capacity, you simply load 5-6 in the 2012, then dump out the 2012 into the dumpster. It feels like an added step. But let’s look at it. If you had 15 cases where you had a person unloading a tipper and we averaged that at 2 minutes per case, it’s 10 minutes of work wasted. If you have to dump out a tipper and it’s near the larger dumpster, it might be 3 minutes as a process. You’ve saved 7 minutes of time and kept your people out of the garbage. Over the course of a month, saving 7 minutes 200 times adds up. It’s like finding 23 more hours of production per month that you have been wasting.
(To put the math in order, that’s presuming you have 45 trash dumping occurrences per day with the plastic tipper. On a 40 story highrise, without having managed it, a 20 yard roll off seems like it cycles out every day pretty easily. )
Eichinger 2012 Forklift Tipping Bin - Low Loading.
We also can do this with other options. Drop Bottom Bins can work with cranes or forklifts. They can be set up to manage FOD on airports quite well. We need to net the top. If you have a lid system on the roll off, you can contain all of the trash with these. Set them up with castors and roll them around. Dump them out with a forklift. There are options at play.
Eichinger Drop Bottom Bins for Cranes and Forklifts
FOD Solutions Continued
FOD Solutions at Eichinger include the 2026 Tipping Skip with a movable cover. If you need to keep everything in the bin, how about a locking lid as the solution? Of course, you’ll need to contain it when you get to the dumpster to dump it out, but that’s been a regular issue until now. These can also prevent fires, or contain them if they still manage to start. The benefits of a lid on a tipper can help everywhere. We do these in 1 and 1.3 yard versions. Castors are an option, but the are all ready for them with carriage bolt holes in the structure.
Eichinger 2026 Tipping Hopper with a Lid
Trash Can Tipping Frame
Our Trash Can Tipping Frame can make it easy to take out the trash. I was an ironworker part of my career. But taking out the trash to a larger dumpster can just be awkward. If you also aren’t 6’-7” tall so the lift of a garbage bin isn’t easy, we can make it easy. The 2093 is a way to lift household wheelie bins into the trash bin and dump them out with the use of your forklift. You no longer need to risk your shoulders or torso in getting the trash into the dumpster. Grab it with the frame and your forklift and now you can dump it out by yourself no matter how tall the dumpster is or how heavy the wheelie bin is.
Eichinger 2093 Garbage Can Tipper.
Pallet Bin With Tipper
Our Pallet Bin when used with a Tipper can be very useful. The Universal Bin is crane rated. It’s clearly ready for forklift use. But they aren’t so easy to dump out without our hydraulic tipper. But with a hydraulic tipper, it’s super easy.
The Pallet Bin comes with Carriage Bolt holes so castors are easily mounted. It’s crane rated. Obviously it works well with forklifts as well. If one were to load trash into this and take this over to the dumpster, you can dump it out with our container tipper. If you have hot items for example, this is a safe way to transport those items. Sharps and heavy objects are another reason to utilize these bins with this tipper. It’s just one more way Eichinger and CraneGear can meet your needs in waste management.
Eichinger Pallet Bin on our Hydraulic Tipper model 2091
The Most Waste Options On the Market
Eichinger has more options in waste for cranes and forklift than anyone I have ever seen. Side tippers. Telehandler Tippers that lock on without chains and tip out with the carriages. We have Stacking tippers that can work with cranes and forklifts with a tipping frame. If you have a waste challenge, I’d like to see if we can help you find money in your operations as a savings. I bet it’s there waiting for us to show you how.
