About Us

Please click on the time line and find out about ARM origins in agricultural engineering in the early years, and how it has progressed into ARM’s current operations and area of recognised expertise in reed bed technology from the 1980s onwards.

With its origins in agricultural engineering, a family run business with a background in farming created Agricultural Requisites and Mechanizations Ltd (ARM Ltd) in 1947.
 
Since the 1960s, scientific investigations into how reed beds and wetlands effect wastewater treatment had been taking place at the Max Planck Institute in Germany . The Water Research Council (WRC) and Water Authority personnel visited the institute with a view to investigate the application of reed bed treatment systems.

Their report concluded that reed bed technology appeared to work and that its application to the treatment of wastewaters in the UK should be trialled and monitored. The UK water authorities subsequently installed reed beds on some small rural sewage treatment works to assess their viability.

Composting operations frequently produce run-off and leachate from the composting work areas. ARM was considering the disposal of this effluent from its composting trials when in routine discussions with our friends at the school of Chemical Engineering at Birmingham University highlighted the potential of reed bed technology. ARM began evaluating the techology, constructing their first reed bed in 1985.