Family-owned waste management firm Bywaters revealed today that finance is now in place for 5.8 million worth of high-tech sorting machinery to be installed at its new flagship site in Bromley-by-Bow.
 Bywaters is developing materials sorting capability at its flagship site, near London's Canary Wharf |
The MRF is being installed in a space-age 19 million building, strategically located near Canary Wharf and the development area for the London Olympics.
The 187,000 square foot building also has room for two more MRFs to be installed in the future, with the site boasting planning permission to sort up to 500,000 tonnes of recyclable waste each year.
The new machinery for “MRF One” is being manufactured by Dutch-owned Synmet UK Ltd, with sorting machinery being sourced from across Europe after Bywaters investigated existing MRFs across North America and the EU.
Expected to open in March 2007, it will include materials sorting technology ranging from trommels, picking stations and ballistic separators to high-tech optical sorting systems.
“Cutting edge”
John Glover, managing director of Bywaters, said: “Recycling is key to ensuring a cleaner environment and the amount of material we handle has increased considerably over the last few years, this new site will provide the capital with the cutting edge recycling facilities it requires.”
Finance for the new MRF system – which will be capable of sorting 25 tonnes of material every hour to be run 22 hours each day – has been provided by Alliance & Leicester through WRAP's eQuip lease guarantee scheme.
Iain Bomberg, business development manager at Alliance & Leicester Commercial Finance said: “Alliance & Leicester is pleased to have been able to support the development of the UK’s largest indoor recycling facility. Bywaters is one of the UK’s leading waste management providers and has many years experience in this sector.”
The funding for the building came from Allied Irish Bank, with Bywaters moving in earlier this year after three of its four sites in East London were purchased as part of the London Olympics redevelopment.
 Bywaters projects director David Rumble showing the colossal space which will be only quarter-filled by the new MRF |
River transport
Bywaters projects director David Rumble told letsrecycle.com today that the site's location on the River Lee could potentially see hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste transported by water, rather than on London's congested roads.
Mr Rumble said: “We are working with Transport for London on this, we are looking at transporting the recyclables out of London via the River Thames – if we have 400,000 to 500,000 tonnes of material that needs to get out of London every year, that could save thousands of lorry journeys.”
The new materials recycling facility is to be used to recycle waste generated by Bywaters' 2,300 commercial customers, but the company hinted that it is considering the possibility of taking in commingled recyclables from municipal services.
Bywaters, which currently has a turnover of about 20.7 million, is committed to creating 100 jobs with the new recycling facility – a huge boost to its existing 250 workforce. The company is also intending to establish an education centre to raise awareness among visitors like schools groups.
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Mr Rumble said once the Bromley-by-Bow MRF is up and running, the company was intending to redevelop its Gateway Road site – the firm's only site to survive the Olympics land-grab.
The acquisition of further sites is another possibility on the horizon as the company grows.
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