The announcement comes as Jenkins Lane and its sister MBT facility at Frog Island in Rainham, which opened in April (see letsrecycle.com story), were both highlighted in a government planning guidance document as examples of good practice and of demonstrating typical issues encountered in the delivery of waste infrastructure projects.
Austen Lees, a spokesman for Shanks, told letsrecycle.com: “Jenkins Lane is taking waste and it is going through testing at the moment and should be fully commissioned and fully operationally by September 2007.”
“The testing is performing in line with expectations and there will be an official handover from the contractors Ecodeco to us,” he added.
Fuel
At the Jenkins Lane site, where Shanks has invested an estimated £33.5 million, residual waste will be shredded and dried before it enters a mechanical process through which recyclable materials such as metals and plastics are removed. After this, it will be made intro solid recovered fuel.
The firm has already reported “significant” demand for this material from markets such as the cement kilns (see letsrecycle.com story) .
Operating alongside the Frog Island facility, the site will serve Shanks' 25 year waste disposal contract with the East London Waste Authority, which includes the London Boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Newham and Redbridge.
Shanks is also currently building a materials recycling facility at the site, which will process orange bags of recyclable materials collected at the sites.
Mr Lees said: “There is a MRF being built for the orange bags from three of the East London boroughs which we sort from other bags but which are currently subcontracted out to other MRFs. It is due to open in 2008.”
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