Renewi: 'Secure' RED continuous alert on heat detection

Safety is top priority at European waste-to-product company Renewi. 'You either work safely or you don't' is the motto. At the Zoeterwoude location in The Netherlands, there is therefore also a RED camera that continuously measures the temperature in the waste storage area. In this way, fire damage can be prevented. “With this we remove the piece of uncertainty of the human factor,” says Supervisor Operations Barry Rijkers.

In Zoeterwoude, waste streams are stored in two large halls, sorted and transported back to other Renewi locations for further processing. “All our material is in different compartments,” Rijkers says. “Should one pile catch fire, the damage remains limited. Furthermore, the dirt lies here for a day at most. By then it has already been taken away. So the time for scalding to occur is small.”

Continuity

The fire prevention camera-type, called the RED Fixed, is mounted on the ceiling in the middle of the hall and continuously scans the temperature in the dirt bumps in a tour. When alarming increases occur, it sounds the alarm. At the Kooi Alarm Center, the dispatcher relays the report to Barry. He and his colleagues take action, for example, to shovel apart the bump to prevent a fire. Emile: “What Kooi adds is continuity at two points. During the day there is the heat detection of the RED. A piece of technology that can detect something we can't see with the naked eye. In addition, there is the continuity that there is also control at times when we are not there.”

Code RED

Now a sense of calm prevails among the employees in the transshipment hall. There have been fires in the past. Drastic events. For a moment, the memories of the two colleagues go back to the ‘old’ situation. Barry: “If it gets 30 degrees for several days and the risk of fire due to scalding increases, we always scale up to code red. In the past, security guards then performed heat checks outside working hours and even at night. That whole procedure now performs the RED.”

Total package

Kooi customers can watch live camera footage through the RED portal. “I have so much confidence in the system that I don't check the RED portal on a daily basis,” Barry confesses. Emile: “Those few times there was an incident, Koois technology just does what we expect of it. We now have more assurance that nothing is overlooked.” His colleague nods in agreement and concludes: “What Renewi and Kooi actually have in common is that we both unburden the customer by offering a total package. That's where we find each other.”