SCA is set to become the latest paper recycling firm to begin handling a wider range of material streams after receiving planning permission from Hampshire county council to develop a £15 million materials recycling facility (MRF).

The council's planning committee has voted unanimously in support of proposals by the Swedish firm, which has its UK headquarters in Kent, to develop a facility capable of sorting 200,000 tonnes of dry recyclable waste each year.

Currently operating eight paper baling and recovery facilities in the Midlands and south of England, SCA intends to develop the MRF on a 6.7 acre site on the Hounsdown Business Park in Totton, which is in the south of the county.

SCA announced plans to develop the facility in June 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story), and the move echoes those by other paper merchants such as Shropshire-based Newport Paper and fellow Swedish company Holmen Paper to tackle wider waste streams.

Totton

The Totton MRF - which is being developed as a merchant facility- is intended to handle 100,000 tonnes of mixed dry recyclables and 100,000 tonnes of source separated recovered paper a year from commercial, industrial and some local authority sources.

Ken Stevens, UK managing director of SCA Recycling, said: "We are delighted that planning has been granted for our MRF development and look forward to building a much needed facility producing high quality recyclables to meet the growing requirements for cost effective, sustainable alternatives to landfill".

The paper recycling firm intends to begin fit-out work this month, with an operational date being touted as summer 2009.

There are currently two MRFs in Hampshire operated by waste management company Veolia Environmental Services, with a £13 million facility in Alton handling 95,000 tonnes of recyclable waste each year and another facility in Portsmouth catering for 62,000 tonnes of waste annually.

Paper

This increasing trend of paper recyclers to move into the development of MRFs seems to be at odds with concerns raised by the Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) in its 2007-08 annual report over the quality of paper coming out of commingled facilities (see letsrecycle.com story).

SCA itself is also an indirect supporter, through its membership of Paperchain, of the Campaign for Real Recycling, which advocates source-separated collections over commingled services (see letsrecycle.com story).

However, some in the sector, such as Holmen, have claimed in the past that by running the facilities themselves, they have access to clean paper, which they say they can not always rely on other MRFs to provide (see letsrecycle.com story).