Firefighters were called to the site at Gretton Brook Road, Corby, at 00:50 on Saturday morning (July 18), after a blaze had broken out at the site.
The cause of the fire, which began close to the facility’s picking line and damaged nearby baling equipment has yet to be ascertained, with Northamptonshire Fire Service to begin its investigation into the blaze today.
The bulk of the material damaged included waste plastic, paper and card, alongside major damage to a large industrial building on the site, and the destruction of several vehicles.
At its peak, 10 crews from across Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Cambridgeshire and Leicestershire attended the incident, with efforts to tackle the fire lasting into the early hours of Saturday morning.
A crew from Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service remains on the site today to dampen down the area affected by the fire.
Contingency
Following the blaze, Recycle Force director Robert Kirk has reassured customers that the site has opened as normal today (July 20) with material being diverted to a separate building that was untouched by the fire.
Mr Kirk also thanked the Fire Service for its role in tackling the blaze, and customers for their patience in the face of any likely disruption.
He said: “Further to this weekend’s reports in the news we can confirm that Recycle Force was subjected to a fire in our main building on Friday night. We would however like to confirm to all our customers that Recycle Force remains fully operational and will be returning to normal service on Monday morning whilst the clean-up continues.
“Recycle Force is a multi-building site and will still be able operate using our other unaffected building and fleet of vehicles. Our business continuity and disaster recovery plan was put into place over the weekend which will allow us to maintain full customer service from this week and beyond.”
Collections ‘unaffected’
Suppliers of material to the site include Corby borough council, which sends recyclables collected from households. The council has issued a statement today informing residents that collections will be unaffected despite the blaze.
Recycle Force carries out sorting of recyclable materials from local authorities in the Northamptonshire area, as well as confidential shredding, business waste and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) collections.
Last month, Recycle Force sold the trade waste division of its business to Cambridgeshire-based firm Mick George (see letsrecycle.com story).
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