 Waste wood awaits reprocessing into fuel for the Wilton 10 power plant near Redcar, which is halfway to completion |
UK Wood Recycling was set up by Manchester recyclers Hadfield's to supply around 80,000 tonnes of recycled wood to the 60 million purpose-built biomass power station built near Redcar.
A 4 million investment in the new recycling business, located near to the Wilton 10 plant, should create 40 jobs over the next few years.
As well as supplying wood for the Wilton 10 plant, UK Wood Recycling will produce products including animal bedding and compost.
Stuart Howarth, commercial director for UK Wood Recycling, said: “It's very exciting to see the first wood arrive on site. The wood recycling facility is still under construction, but we are now licensed to receive wood.”
Types
One key benefit of its links to the Wilton 10 project is that the company will be able to recycle virtually all types of waste wood – including MDF, chipboard, melamine, hardboard, plywood and laminates.
Mr Howarth said: “We can take all non-hazardous wood types, apart from treated timbers such as telegraph poles and railway sleepers. This is very different to most recycling companies, who are restricted to taking specific types of wood.”
Built and operated by Singapore-owned company SembCorp Utilities UK (see letsrecycle.com story), Wilton 10 is the first large-scale purpose-built wood-burning biomass power station in the UK. The plant is now half-way through construction, and expected to be operational by the summer of 2007.
UK Wood Recycling is still finishing the construction of its site, but expects to begin full operations by December 2006.
The company is developing an onsite laboratory to ensure quality specifications are met for the wood fuel being supplied to the power station.
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