The acquisition of the company, which is based in Coalville, Leicestershire, comes just two months after Greenstar bought Bedfordshire-based commercial recycling company Firbank Chiltern (see letsrecycle.com story), and marks the next step in its efforts to develop a 'feeder spine' of smaller MRFs.
Outlining the company's plans to develop links between a number of MRF facilities, a spokesman for Greenstar told letsrecycle.com: “There'll be a spine of MRFs echoing Greenstar's operational areas.
“They'll do the initial processing, cleaning, bulking and batching up and then that will go to the super-MRFs.
“Some of the smaller MRFs will process materials to a high enough standard for sale to secondary markets, but the majority will go to Aldridge,” he added, explaining that the new technology used at the Aldridge MRF made it ideal for high quality sorting of commingled collections.
LPP
Leicester Paper Processors (LPP) was established more than 40 years ago, and currently operates from a three-acre freehold site that has 50,000 square feet of covered space.
Handling around 45,000 tonnes of recyclables a year, it collects paper, card, plastics, glass and metal, as well as confidential paper-based data, from commercial customers.
In October 2007 it also won a two-year contract to use its MRF to process 20,000 tonnes of household commingled collections from Charnwood borough council.
With the acquisition, Greenstar now has a significant presence in the Midlands, with LPP, the Aldridge MRF and also the contracts that its recently purchased subsidiary Verdant, (see letsrecycle.com story), holds with Melton borough council and authorities in South Staffordshire, Cannock and Stratford-upon-Avon.
The company's chief executive, Ian Wakelin, outlined the reasons for buying the company, explaining that “LPP gives us the opportunity to further develop our combined waste and recycling service which is used by hundreds of commercial and industrial customers across the UK,” he said.
“It's popular because it helps companies to reduce waste and therefore cost and to meet their environmental obligations by recycling more,” he added.
As Greenstar seeks to build up a network of MRFs around the UK, it has emerged as one of the most vocal supporters of commingled collections for both household and commercial collections (see letsrecycle.com story).
Further purchases
Mr Wakelin also indicated that the company would be planning further purchases and developments in the near future.
“We have several more acquisitions and developments in mind which will help Greenstar's progress to becoming the UK's leading recycling-led business, offering integrated collection and processing services that help Britain to waste less and recycle more,” he explained.
Greenstar already plans to build a second super-MRF in London, as it expands its operations in the capital with a role in Harrow borough council's framework agreement for sorting commingled collections, which was launched earlier this month (see letsrecycle.com story).
However, the company's spokesman remained tight-lipped on any proposals for further super-MRFs, explaining that “I'm not aware of any plans at the moment for one further North, South, East or West”.
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