Figures now suggest the UK's tonnage capacity for sorting commingled material including glass could soon overtake the capacity of MRFs that cannot take glass.
The amount of new MRFs being developed – and existing MRFs being re-fitted – to take glass now challenges the notion that there will be a shortage of capacity to meet the growing local authority demand to collect recyclable materials mixed including glass.
Taking into account proposed new MRFs and refits, the nations capacity for sorting commingled plus glass looks set to rise to at least 1.3 million tonnes in the next two years.
And, further MRF proposals currently at the design or planning stage are likely to take this figure beyond the 1.5 million tonnes of existing sorting capacity at UK MRFs unable to take glass.
Jennie Rogers, who works with local authorities through her consultancy askjennie.com, said: “I'm stunned at the number of MRFs being retrofitted to take glass at the moment. There will very soon be 11 MRFs able to take glass, and there are also a string of new ones going through the planning process. There is a major trend at the moment towards MRFs that can take glass.”
Ms Rogers said that the days when it was no uncommon for MRFs to have a 50% rejection rate are now gone, with new technology allowing much better contamination rates – of less than 10% even for plants sorting glass.
“Local authorities are not being penalised any more by losing half their recycling tonnages by putting it through a MRF,” she explained.
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Operational glass-sorting MRFs |
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| MRF | Operator | Annual capacity (t) |
| Bidston | Mersey Waste | 30,000 |
| Blackburn | Greenstar | 75,000 |
| Cardiff | Cardiff council | 60,000 |
| Caythorpe | Mid UK Recycling | 50,000 |
| Colnbrook | Grundon | 40,000 |
| Crayford | Grosvenor | 230,000 |
| Greenwich | Veolia | 75,000 |
| Rhondda | AMGEN Cymru | 30,000 |
| Skegness | Greenstar | 75,000 |
| Tilbury Docks | Nordic Recycling | 100,000 |
| n.b. Capacity refers to tonnage of all materials including glass, not just glass | ||
Capacity
As of 2006, the UK had 82 MRFs with a total sorting capacity of 2.5 million tonnes according to a report from WRAP published in June. This total included 970,000 tonnes capacity of MRFs taking glass.
Operational MRFs in the UK currently sorting glass include the Mersey Waste facility at Bidston, Greenstar UK facilities in Blackburn and Skegness, Cardiff council's plant, the Rhondda MRF run by AMGEN Cymru, the Mid UK plant in Lincolnshire, the Grundon plant in Colnbrook and the Veolia MRF in Greenwich.
They also include Grosvenor's 230,000-tonne annual capacity facility at Crayford and most recently the 100,000 tonne annual capacity new Nordic Recycling facility in Tilbury Docks.
New glass-sorting MRFs are on the way in Wandsworth courtesy of Cory Environmental, Cheltenham thanks to Grundon, Corby at Oakley Waste Management and a large facility at Aldridge, near Birmingham, being built by Greenstar to process up to 250,000 tonnes of fully-commingled material a year.
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Forthcoming glass-sorting MRFs |
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| MRF | Operator | Annual capacity (t) |
| Aldridge | Greenstar | 250,000 |
| Cheltenham(possible) | Grundon | 50,000 |
| Corby | Oakley Waste | 40,000 |
| Leatherhead(refit) | Grundon | 40,000 |
| Peruvian Wharf(proposed) | Cory | 50,000 |
| Peterborough(refit) | Grosvenor | 90,000 |
| Poole(possible) | Viridor | 30,000 |
| Wandsworth | Cory | 84,000 |
| West Sussex (possible) | Viridor-Grosvenor | ? |
| Wychavon(possible) | Severn Waste | 75,000 |
| n.b. Capacity refers to tonnage of all materials including glass, not just glass | ||
Further proposals to develop MRFs with glass-sorting capabilities are understood to be in the pipeline for Wychavon in Worcestershire, courtesy of Severn Waste Management, in the London borough of Newham in Cory's Peruvian Wharf project, in West Sussex through a possible Viridor/Grosvenor project, and in the London borough of Southwark under its forthcoming PFI contract for which Veolia is preferred bidder.
Poole council is also now investigating whether to build a glass-sorting MRF when its contract to send material to Grosvenor in Kent runs out in 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Meanwhile, Grundon is also now re-fitting its Leatherhead MRF at the moment to take glass, and Grosvenor is re-fitting the Peterborough MRF to take glass.
Peterborough city council spokesman Mike Lennox said when its MRF is refitted, the council will offer a mixed kerbside collection scheme of cans and jars, with sorted glass being used to make aggregates.
Mr Lennox said: “We want to drive up recycling rates to more than 65%. Our current recycling and composting rate is 43%. Our landfill options are running out and like many other local authorities, we are moving towards improving recycling. Glass is very heavy and bulky so if we are judged on tonnages, glass will make a difference.”
As well as a boost to recycling targets, for councils commingled glass schemes can also mean an end to householders driving to the bottle bank – or living next to noisy glass bring banks.
Waste management companies are increasingly developing MRFs to take glass to meet the wishes of their local authority customers. Neil Grundon, of Grundon Waste Management, said of his company's move to sort glass: “We feel that the technology is suitably advanced in order for us to continue to produce a quality recyclate fit for the market.”
Glass
We see glass coming through MRFs as material that was prevented from going to landfill.
Adam Day, Day Aggregates
Grundon is one of the waste companies supplying glass from its MRFs to London firm Days Aggregates. Days can accept glass with between five and 10% contamination by weight.
Adam Day, a director at the company, started taking glass from Grundon after the company refitted its Colnbrook MRF.
He said of the glass coming from Grundon: “It's very good quality. It's the type of glass we can take all day long and produce eco-sand from. They're increasing capacity to collect kerbside glass, which means they will be able to supply us with more. We see glass coming through MRFs as material that was prevented from going to landfill.”
The rising trend of MRFs sorting the nation's household glass waste is not being welcomed by the glass container industry, however, which can accept only material with very low levels of contamination.
Ardagh Glass said glass recycling should not be about “just driving up volume of recyclable material”.
A spokesman for the company, which has backed the anti-MRF protests by the Campaign for Real Recycling, said: “A MRF is not a glass treatment facility. Glass treatment facilities are specialised and you've got to know what you're doing. Also, where's the quality control at a MRF?
“We need sensible discussion and a sensible process before millions of pounds are invested in operations that may or may not be suitable for the end process, which is maximising the amount of quality recyclate,” the Ardagh spokesman added.
Paper
We need sensible discussion and a sensible process before millions of pounds are invested in operations that may or may not be suitable for the end process.
Ardagh glass
Paper mills are also uncomfortable with the rising trend of MRFs and MRFs sorting glass.
Ron Humphreys, managing director of Abitibi-Consolidated Recycling Europe, which supplies paper to the Bridgewater paper mill, said that the paper industry's current experience with MRFs “is not a happy one”.
He said: “The MRFs that we have spoken with that are taking glass can't meet our specifications. By adding glass it would virtually kill our operations here.”
Mr Humphreys explained that glass shards cause pulping machines to break down, and that glass contamination in paper fibres causes paper to be rejected – leaving paper mills with high repair bills as well as landfill costs.
He suggested that solutions could be to encourage a “dual stream” kerbside collection process keeping paper separate from materials like glass – or to ensure that sorting technology is “respected”, operating at a pace where contamination can be kept at a low level rather than at a speed to maximise volume.
Worst thing that ever happened to our place was when we started to take glass. It eats through belts and metal work and glass dust contaminates the fibre based recycling. Add on to that it’s lead to areas of the mrf to be airfed hoods only working areas. All this to save councils money so they could get rid of their bottle banks. Really wish that England was gonna include glass in the upcoming drs scheme in 2027