Body Shop says waste tanks are now in good odour
15 Jan 2000
In Body Shop International's Colour Division, two tanks of waste by-product have been creating the sort of smell that no self-respecting cosmetics manufacturer would want to boast about. The problem was how to deal with it.
The tanks are a balance tank of untreated waste and a sludge tank of treated waste by-product. Sited underground and fed from the side by inlet pipes, they are emptied when a float switch near the top of each vessel indicates they are full.
A simple cover for the sludge was ruled out as the movement of the waste has to be unhindered, and in any event, restricted access to the tanks meant any sort of permanent cover would be awkward to install and probably ineffective.
Instead, the company turned to Capricorn's Allplas floating ball blanket system. A rim helps the balls to interlock, and the 70mm ball cover over 91 per cent of the surface area.
The system can use balls of any diameter, manufactured from either polypropylene or polyethylene to be impervious to all but a few harsh chemicals.
An important feature for the Body Shop was that, while the ball blanket contains the smell from the tanks, it does not interfere with the volume level or prevent the float switches from being activated.
