If approved, the proposals would see a former in-vessel composting (IVC) building on Salford Road, Over Hulton, converted into a new mechanical recycling facility to process around 140,000 tonnes of kerbside-collective dry recycling from households across Greater Manchester.
The 3.7-hectare site already hosts the Salford Road household waste and recycling centre and is accessed via an unadopted road linking to the A6 Salford Road, which also serves a nearby solar farm and a haulage company.
Alongside the planning application, GMCA is seeking to procure the design, build, installation, commissioning and testing of new processing systems for the facility.
Once operational, the plant would produce recyclable outputs including loose glass and baled materials.
Former IVC site
The building earmarked for the new MRF previously operated as an in-vessel composting facility, treating kerbside-collected garden and food waste to produce agricultural compost.
However, it has been vacant since 2019, when GMCA ceased its biowaste treatment contract at the site.
Most recently, it has been used as a bio-transfer loading station, with equipment now removed and the internal structure refurbished.
Bolton Council planners are expected to consider the application in the coming weeks.
Manchester waste disposal
GMCA is the largest waste disposal authority in the UK and is responsible for managing municipal waste and recycling from around one million households across nine Greater Manchester districts: Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside and Trafford.
Wigan, which is a unitary authority, manages its own waste disposal arrangements.
In total, GMCA oversees approximately 1.03 million tonnes of waste and recycling annually.
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