White Moss Horticulture has carried out a 2 million re-development of its existing six-acre composting facility, which up until now had been taking in 15,000 tonnes of green waste each year.
The company is to take in green waste from the Merseyside councils Knowsley and St Helens, and is in discussions with other councils and waste collection companies in the area concerning their green waste. Initially, White Moss will be processing about 38,000 tonnes of green waste each year.
The new facility is likely to be welcome in Liverpool – a part of the UK which is generally not well served by compost plants. Liverpool came bottom of the latest UK recycling and composting league table with a 4% rate achieved in 2003/04.
White Moss has been manufacturing horticultural products at its 400-acre Simonswood Moss site for over 50 years, and until two years ago was producing growing media purely from the peat on its own land. The company is now using 30% compost in products supplied to garden centres and the horticultural market under its Richmoor brand.
Investment
The company has put a substantial amount of money into upgrading its composting site, and has received a grant of just over half a million pounds from WRAP to support the development.
Asked why the site had warranted such a substantial investment from WRAP, the company's composting manager Paul Whyatt said: “We already had good markets into horticulture and so could prove we had a purpose. We are not just looking for a gate fee or to dispose of waste.”
The investment has allowed the company to install a 20,000 square metre concrete pad, constructed by D Morgan Plc and designed by Haltec Chester. White Moss has also purchased a Crambo 5000 shredder.
Screening of processed compost is carried out by a purpose-built Slootweg screening line and the site's growing media production plant has also undergone a complete refurbishment, with the installation of a new Slootweg bagging machine.
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