Beans means Lanes for hotel charity fundraiser

Lanes engineers have put their jet vacuumation technology to a very special use – emptying a ‘bath of baked beans’.

They vacuumed up the beans at the Holiday Inn Warrington on Thursday (June 19) after General Manager Anthony Milligan had spent the whole day sitting in them in the hotel foyer.

He raised over £500 for the hotel chain’s Shelter in a Storm initiative which helps support people in need of disaster relief.

Mike Manning, Operations Manager at the Lanes Chester depot, mobilised the jet vac tanker and its crew to attend the hotel as they returned from a full day’s work at another site.

He said: “We were happy to lend a hand for a good cause. It’s not often we get asked to empty a bath of beans. In fact, I’ve never been asked before!”

Lanes’ jet vac tankers are designed to water jet clean drainage pipes and gullies, then suck up the waste, which can include sewage, stones, gravel, soil, silt – and now beans.

Mike Manning said: “What is good about this exercise is that the waste we collect gets recycled into a nutrient used to enrich soil on farms.

“So the beans will be helping grow more food, which can be eaten next time.”