Based in the south of the city, the Stourton plant will have capacity to treat up to 200,000 tonnes of materials per year – boosting the business’ permitted annual processing capacity to 875,000 tonnes.
Creating 40 full time jobs, the facility will include an ‘extensive’ dry mixed recycling facility, with a £5 million investment in equipment.
It will also provide additional operations for municipal refuse and commercially-sourced waste reclamation, including production of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) and solid recovered fuel (SRF).
An additional £5 million has been spent on buildings and infrastructure at the site, as well as collection vehicles for both trade and skip waste.
Leader of Leeds city council, councillor Judith Blake, said: “We very much welcome Associated Waste Management’s continued commitment to Leeds, and it is great news that through this latest significant investment a further 40 jobs will be created in the city.”
“With the opening of the new site, Associated Waste Management plan to further challenge the face of recycling in the Yorkshire region.”
Expansion
Procurement of the site follows a period of growth for the medium-sized regional company – which turned over an estimated £45 million in 2015. AWM’s expansion has been made possible through ‘a number of ‘significant’ contract awards the company claims.
This includes Calderdale council’s decision in 2015 to renew its residual waste treatment contract with AWM for a further nine years (see letsrecycle.com story).
Waste from Calderdale is currently screened at AWM’s MRF in Morley, in Leeds, before it processed into RDF for use at the Ferrybridge Multifuel facility in West Yorkshire.
AWM also exports RDF to Europe. In 2015, the company was ranked within the top ten UK exporters of energy from waste, producing 180,000 tonnes of RDF for use in power plants in the UK and the continent.
The firm’s fleet of vehicles was meanwhile enhanced last month, with the addition of two Mercedes Euro 6, energy efficient wagons, both with on-board weighing and tracking technology. This will bring the fleet size to 70, all of which are engaged in servicing AWM’s base of 9,000 clients.
Subscribe for free