Fleetwood-based Wyre Waste Management has leased 220,000 worth of aggregate crushing and screening machinery on a five-year lease with Bank of Scotland Asset Finance.
Banks have been reluctant to lend money for the leasing of equipment in the recycling sector because of its unproven track record. The eQuip scheme sees the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) taking on the risk of such a project by providing a financial guarantee for the residual value of the equipment
 Ian Drury of Wyre Waste in front of the company's new Extec finger screener |
The screener and crusher leased to Wyre Waste were supplied by Extec Screens & Crushers Limited. The company will use the new equipment to crush and segregate aggregates to various grades, leading to about 100,000 tonnes of materials being recycled each year for use in construction, roadways and restoration works.
Ian Drury, a partner in Wyre Waste Management, said: “If the eQuip scheme had not been available, we would have had very limited financial alternatives. Grants were not available and buying was not an option as we could not afford a big initial outlay of capital. Hire purchase wouldn’t have helped us either as we would have needed a large deposit which we could not afford.”
Wyre Waste Management takes in construction, demolition and excavation waste from building sites and local authorities across the Fylde coast.
WRAP’s eQuip scheme has five banks and leasing companies on its panel of lessors – Abbey National Business, State Securities, Banks of Scotland Corporate Banking, Broadcastle and Mileshield Commercial Funding. The government-funded organisation is also actively seeking other lessors interested in joining the scheme’s panel of funders.
Eligible
To be eligible for the scheme, recyclers must have current of planned business activities involving the sorting, reprocessing or recycling of glass, plastic, wood, paper, aggregates or organic waste materials. Or, a business must be involved in producing collection technology or infrastructure to improve the recycling of those materials.
Companies manufacturing products using recycled glass, plastic, wood, paper, aggregates or organic waste materials are also eligible for the scheme, although not those making fuel for energy production.
Tara Clair, WRAP’s investment manager said there has already been a great deal of interest in the scheme. She explained: “Under eQuip, WRAP has set up a panel of lessors. When WRAP introduces applicants to them, we agree with them a residual value for the asset in question so that they can calculate competitive repayments, safe in the knowledge that, if the worst happens and the machinery depreciates more than expected, we’ll make good any shortfall.”
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