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Yorwaste Increases Throughput by 300% and Eliminates Reprocessing with M&K Static Electric Compost Screening System
April 7, 2026York, United Kingdom: How replacing a Terra Select T60 mobile trommel with a purpose-built static electric compost screening system transformed a PAS 100 compost operation in North Yorkshire — tripling output, eliminating reprocessing, and removing a confined space safety risk for good.
Yorwaste’s Existing Compost Screening System was Failing Them on Three Fronts Simultaneously
Yorwaste Ltd. is North Yorkshire’s leading waste management company. Across three composting sites — Harewood Whim, Seamer Carr, and Tancred — they transform kerbside garden waste into Yorganics: a PAS 100-certified, peat-free compost sold in 40-litre bags at household recycling centres and supplied in bulk to farms and growers across the region. Over 20,000 bags and approximately 25,000 tonnes per year.
PAS 100 is the UK’s benchmark quality standard for recycled compost. Maintaining it requires a clean, accurate separation at the screening stage. Losing it is not an option.
Yorwaste’s existing screening machine — a Terra Select T60 mobile trommel — was failing them on three fronts simultaneously.
Throughput. The T60’s 8.25 m² drum was a bottleneck. Demand for Yorganics was growing, but the machine couldn’t keep pace. Moving a mobile machine around site added further time and dead hours to every screening campaign.
Product quality. The T60’s limited screen area and short material dwell time meant that fine 0–20 mm compost was not being fully separated out. Fines were carrying over into the oversize reject fraction — contaminating it with usable, saleable product. The only fix was to reprocess: feed the oversize back through the drum a second time. That reprocessing loop was a direct, avoidable cost built into every campaign.
Safety. Compost is a difficult material to screen. Fibrous, sticky, and variable in moisture content, it blocks trommel drums — and the T60 blocked regularly. When it did, the only solution was to send an operator inside the machine to dig the material out by hand. Entering a trommel is a confined space entry under the Confined Spaces Regulations 1997. That means a formal permit-to-work, a risk assessment, a trained standby person, and emergency rescue provisions — for what should be a routine production task. Staff hated it. Management hated it. And every blockage stopped production.
M&K Solution
Yorwaste approached M&K with a clear brief: replace the T60 with a permanent, higher-capacity installation that would grow with the operation, eliminate the safety risk, and deliver the clean separation that PAS 100 demands.
M&K’s engineering team assessed the full process — site layout, windrow volumes, material characteristics at the screening stage, and the 20 mm output specification required for PAS 100 certification. The recommendation was a purpose-engineered static electric screening plant with a 2.5 Ă— 8 trommel.
The comparison with the T60 is stark:
| Terra Select T60 | M&K Static Screening System | |
| Screen dimensions | 1.5 Ă— 5.5 m | 2.5 Ă— 8 m |
| Screen surface area | 8.25 m² | 20.0 m² |
| Screen area increase | — | +142% |
| Real-world throughput | Baseline | 2–3× more |
| Drive | Diesel hydraulic | Electric motor |
| Installation | Mobile trommel | Static / permanent |
| 0–20 mm in oversize | Yes — regular carry-over | Eliminated |
| Reprocessing required | Yes | None |
| Blockage risk | High | Eliminated |
| Confined space working | Yes — operator entry into drum | No |
The M&K static system runs from an existing power supply. No diesel. No hydraulic fluid. No repositioning. No confined spaces.
The Results
The M&K static electric screen has transformed Yorwaste’s screening operation. The results are operational, financial, and safety-critical.
2–3Ă— throughput. This is the headline from Yorwaste’s own site team. The new machine processes two to three times more compost per campaign than the T60 it replaced. That gain comes from multiple compounding factors: the larger 20 m² screening area, greater material dwell time, zero blockage stoppages, and — critically — no reprocessing loop eating into productive machine hours.
Reprocessing eliminated. With the T60, oversize reject was regularly contaminated with 0–20 mm fines that hadn’t been properly separated. With the MK Group screen, all the fines are removed in the primary screening pass. The oversize is a genuine reject. Nothing goes back through. More usable compost is recovered from the same raw material.
Confined space working — gone. No operator has entered a drum since the M&K system since the system was commissioned. The safety risk, the compliance paperwork, the permit-to-work process, the standby requirements — all of it is gone. The site is safer and simpler to manage.
PAS 100 quality — protected. The cleaner, more consistent separation that the larger trommel delivers means Yorganics compost exits the screening stage reliably within specification. The certification is secure. The product’s commercial reputation is protected.
Lower operating costs. Diesel and hydraulic fluid costs at the screening stage have been replaced by a fraction of the equivalent electricity cost. Maintenance is simpler. Downtime is lower. The cost per ton of finished compost has reduced.
Is Your Compost Screen Holding You Back?
If blocked trommels, dirty oversize, reprocessing loops, or throughput bottlenecks sound familiar — M&K can help. M&K will assess your site, your material, and your production targets honestly.
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About Yorganics and PAS 100
Yorganics is Yorwaste’s PAS 100-certified compost brand — 100% recycled, peat-free, and produced from locally collected garden waste in North Yorkshire. It is sold in 40-litre bags through North Yorkshire’s household waste recycling centres and supplied in bulk to farms and land managers across the region.
PAS 100-certified (Publicly Available Specification 100) is the British Standards Institution’s quality standard for composted materials. PAS 100-certified compost is classified as an end-of-waste product, allowing it to be sold and applied to land without the regulatory restrictions that apply to waste. For UK compost producers, PAS 100 certification is a commercial and regulatory essential — opening markets in agriculture, horticulture, and landscaping, and demonstrating compliance to local authority partners and regulators. Every 2,500 tonnes of Yorganics compost is independently laboratory-tested to maintain this standard.
The screening stage is one of the most critical control points in PAS 100 production. It is where the finished compost is classified to specification. Get the screening wrong and the certification — and the product — is at risk.
Note for international buyers: PAS 100-certified is a UK standard. Equivalent quality standards for recycled compost exist in other markets — including AS 4454 in Australia, EN 13432 and national compost quality protocols across Europe, and USCC guidelines in North America. M&K’s static screening systems are designed and configured to support certified compost production regardless of the applicable local standard. Contact us to discuss your market’s specific requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
In Yorwaste’s case, replacing a Terra Select T60 mobile trommel (1.5 Ă— 5.5 m / 8.25 m²) with an M&K Static electric screen (2.5 Ă— 8 m / 20.0 m²) delivered 2–3 times more throughput per campaign. The 142% increase in screen surface area is part of the explanation, but the real-world gain is larger — because the static screen also eliminates blockage stoppages and the reprocessing loop that was consuming productive machine time on the mobile unit
Compost is fibrous, sticky, and variable in moisture content — characteristics that make it prone to building up inside a rotating trommel drum and blocking the mesh. When a trommel blocks, an operator must physically enter the drum to remove the material by hand. Under UK law (Confined Spaces Regulations 1997), this is a confined space entry requiring a formal permit-to-work, trained standby personnel, and emergency rescue provisions. Static flat-deck screens do not have this problem — their open deck geometry does not trap material in the same way.
Fines carry-over happens when a screen’s deck is too small or material moves through too quickly for the fine fraction (0–20 mm) to pass fully through the mesh. Instead, some fines exit with the oversize reject — contaminating it with usable, saleable compost. The only way to recover that material is reprocessing: feeding the oversize back through the screen for a second pass. A correctly sized static screen eliminates carry-over entirely — all the fines pass through on the first pass, the oversize is a true reject, and nothing needs reprocessing.
A static electric compost screen is a permanently installed, mains-powered screening plant with a larger deck, lower running costs, and higher throughput than a mobile trommel. A mobile diesel trommel can be repositioned around a site but is limited by drum size, requires diesel and hydraulic fluid, and is more prone to blockages requiring confined space entry. Static screens are preferred for high-volume, fixed-location composting operations. Mobile trommels suit smaller operations where flexibility of location is essential.
PAS 100 is the British Standards Institution’s quality standard for composted materials — the benchmark for recycled compost in the UK. PAS 100-certified compost is classified as an end-of-waste product, allowing it to be sold and applied to land without the regulatory burden applied to waste. The screening stage is a critical PAS 100 control point: compost must be separated to the correct fraction size with oversized material and contaminants reliably removed. Equipment that cannot achieve a clean separation at volume puts PAS 100 certification — and the commercial value of the product — at risk.
Yes. M&K has direct experience of this, including the Yorwaste installation in this case study. The process covers site assessment, equipment specification, civil works coordination, installation, and commissioning. M&K works with the operator to minimise disruption to ongoing composting campaigns during the transition.
Yes. Static electric screens are well suited to open windrow composting sites with a fixed, centralised screening point. Once windrows have matured — typically after 11–12 weeks of turning and temperature management — compost is transferred to the static screen for final classification. The permanent installation, mains electric drive, and larger deck make it significantly more efficient than a mobile trommel for sites processing thousands of tonnes per year.
The primary safety advantage is the elimination of confined space entry. Mobile trommels are prone to blockages requiring an operator to enter the drum — a confined space entry under the Confined Spaces Regulations 1997, carrying significant risk and compliance obligations. Additional advantages include no vehicle movement hazards, no diesel handling, and no hydraulic systems that can fail or leak on a composting pad.
Electric-drive screening eliminates diesel fuel consumption entirely at the screening stage, replacing it with mains electricity at a fraction of the equivalent diesel cost per tonne processed. It also removes the hydraulic system — eliminating hydraulic fluid purchasing, fluid disposal, seal and component replacements, and the maintenance schedule of a diesel engine. Over the machine’s working life, the total cost of ownership of an electric static trommel screen is substantially lower than a diesel mobile trommel of comparable capacity.
ROI depends on site-specific factors including current throughput volumes, diesel and maintenance costs, the cost of reprocessing campaigns, and the value of additional saleable compost produced. In Yorwaste’s case, a 2–3Ă— throughput increase combined with the complete elimination of reprocessing means significantly more saleable compost per campaign from the same raw material — while running costs have fallen. Contact M&K for a detailed assessment of your operation, including indicative payback modelling.
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