Eco's expansion plans coincide with Dorset county council's intention to provide all households with containers for a kitchen and garden waste kerbside collection. In order to take the kitchen waste, Eco hopes to install an in-vessel composting plant over the next few months.
Trelawney Dampney, managing director for Eco, said: “The more organic material that can be recycled, the less the country buries as landfill – which is a costly business for local authorities and, ultimately, for residents.”
The site currently processes around 35,000 tonnes of green matter and 70,000 tonnes of earth each year from public tips, landscapers and building contractors. At the site the material is processed and screened before being sold as mulch, composts or soil.
The company also produces woodchip on the site from recycled natural wood. In the next two years, Eco plants to expand its woodchipping operation by installing a new plant to chip treated wood, including MDF, old furniture, painted and stained wood. Its new plant will produce a woodchip to be sold to companies producing MDF.
The company is also using its own recycled topsoil to start a turf-growing business, with 80,000 square metres per year eventually expanding to 250,000 square meters. Mr Trelawney explained the importance of using recycled topsoil and compost to sustainably grow turf. He said: “Our turf business benefits from using Eco's own recycled topsoil to replenish the soil removed with each cut – unlike normal turf farms that have to move after ten years because of serious topsoil depletion.”
He added: “We are able to complete the full ecological cycle by sustaining our turf fields indefinitely using a rich mixture of recycled topsoil and compost made from recyclable organic matter.”
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