Grosvenor develops MRF with backing of London Remade

The plant, at Crayford near the Dartford Tunnel, includes the UK's first optical sorter for waste paper as part of a strategy to increase the value of paper collected from the domestic stream and commercial sector.

Grosvenor has grown rapidly in recent years and was chosen by London Remade to increase paper recycling in the capital under its eco-industrial estates project. These are being developed to establish “commercial scale re-engineering activities designed to demonstrate the commercial viability of sourcing, re-engineering and re-using significant volumes of recycled materials from the waste stream”.

Commercial approach
Each London Remade supported site is run by a private sector company or consortium to help ensure that operation and outputs have a commercial market imperative.

London Remade is finalising an investment of 440,000 into the paper side of the Grosvenor MRF which will allow for an extra 50,000 tonnes of paper to be recovered in London, particularly from the domestic waste stream.

One of the challenges for Grosvenor and London Remade is to get London councils to use the plant for sorting recyclables. Hugh Carr Harris, chief executive of London Remade, said he hoped most London local authorities would use the plant. “We are trying our best to make sure that the capacity at Grosvenor is used by London authorities. Sometimes it is all too easy to be focused on the collection of materials rather than the commercial markets at the end of the chain.”

Better returns
A key reason for the investment in the paper sorting equipment, which comes from Germany, is that it will make the process more economic in that higher returns can be achieved from better sorting. More high grade material will be generated by using the optical sorter and the grades produced – board, newspapers and office paper – will respectively go to three mills, Smurfit, Aylesford and M-Real. The three mills form part of a paper consortium which also involves London councils and businesses encouraged to buy Evolve recycled paper from M-Real under London Remade's Green Procurement code.