The 84,000 tonne-a-year capacity plant will sort recyclables collected from within the Western Riverside Waste Authority's (WRWA) four member boroughs – Hammersmith and Fulham, Lambeth, Wandsworth and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
And, with agreements now in place with contractors to develop the materials recycling facility (MRF), Fran Comerford-Cole, Cory's general manager for London Operations, said: “I am delighted that we have reached this milestone in the MRF's development.
“While the new facility is vital for both Cory and WRWA, it has a much wider importance as critical infrastructure for London as a whole to meet future recycling needs,” she added.
The materials recycling facility (MRF) will be built on the WRWA's existing site at Smuggler's Way, on the south bank of the Thames in Wandsworth.
Project management
Project management duties for the facility will be undertaken by Oxfordshire-based consultancy RPS Group.
They will manage the construction as well as the relationship between the two contractors on the development – civil contractors P J Careys from Middlesex and Canadian MRF technology experts Machinex UK who will design the equipment used in the process.
The plant is due to become operational in summer 2010, and while Cory will supervise the construction of the facility and be responsible for its day-to-day operation, both the building and its equipment will ultimately be owned by the WRWA.
Cory has emphasised the fact that the MRF will not involve the transporting of recyclables for separation over long distances, stating that: “The new facility will comply with the proximity principle, allowing WRWA to be largely self-sufficient in sorting commingled recyclables on site and reducing vehicle movements.”
The company has also previously expressed its intention to transport materials sorted at the facility via the River Thames to reprocessors.
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