A year in the waste industry can be challenging, and for Lincolnshire-based Mid UK Recycling 2015 has certainly been no exception. But now the company has its sights set squarely on a positive future.
A fire at its Barkston Heath recycling plant in Lincolnshire, coupled with an inquest into the accidental death of a worker at the same site in 2013, exposed the company to unwanted publicity.
Chris Mountain, managing director of Mid UK, says the company is looking forward and has prioritised health and safety standards. He is also keen to set the record straight on fire issues.
“The Environment Agency’s Fire Prevention Plan came out in April,” he says. “Before it was released we were already putting in sprinkler systems and concrete screens. We have a good relationship with the fire service and we are investing in the future such as a water run-off plan so that water from the site can be recirculated on to a potential fire.”
“This site was a store for BSE waste for seven years prior to Mid UK taking it on,” adds Alister Constantine, the firm’s group compliance manager. “So converting a site like that into a site like this does not happen overnight.”
Training
Mr Mountain has a bespoke solution. “We have 15 to 16 members of staff being trained for firefighting under a programme set up by Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue Service,” he reveals. “It’s all about time. The delay between having an appliance here and what our teams can do could be crucial. It’s not something we ever want to see here again.”
Incorporated in 1997, Mid UK employs 400 staff across its Lincolnshire business, making it one of the largest independent waste management companies still running in the UK. Its portfolio includes Barkston Heath, Market Deeping and Caythorpe, and an open-windrow composting operation at Colsterworth.
Located close to Grantham, the Barkston Heath site currently houses a materials recycling facility (MRF) for dry household recyclables from commercial clients and the county council, as well as facilities for solid-recovered fuel (SRF) production, plasterboard recycling and mattress and carpet recycling.
The plasterboard operation provides an outlet for mixed grades of complete boards, broken pieces and gypsum-based products from the construction and demolition industry as well as material from HWRC sites. The output is used for industrial absorbents and cat litter including the Tesco everyday brand. The SRF produced by Mid UK is a combination of C&I waste and MRF residues, and is either exported or supplied to a number of cement kilns, such as the Hope Works cement plant in Derbyshire.
Expansion
Under Mid UK’s plans, the Barkston Heath site will be expanded from 25 acres to 45 acres to make way for additional SRF storage in line with the Agency’s Fire Prevention Plan – with additional capacity bringing the option to extend throughput to 350,000 tonnes of materials per year. Nearby Caythorpe will also receive a boost, bringing capacity at the 15-acre site up to 200,000 tonnes per year, having acquired the remaining 2.5 acres of land and buildings on the industrial estate.
The upgrades are in the planning process with Lincolnshire county council and Mr Mountain is keen to ensure the public and local stakeholders are fully aware and involved in the process. He wants the family-owned business to live up to its official title as a ‘large local employer’ – with an additional 200 jobs to be sourced as a result of the expansion. At Barkston Heath, there have also been proposals put forward for a new education centre in order to develop relationships with the community.
“Companies like us are innovative, we try to create solutions,” he explains. “The Environment Agency are big on duty of care and legislation, so from that point of view it keeps us on our toes and it’s a relationship we can build on in the future. What the council doesn’t want to see is incremental planning. They want to see where we will be in 10 years’ time and what we want. It’s an increase in tonnage of 100,000 tonnes per year combined with additional storage space.”
RDF
Mid UK also produces a minimal amount of RDF which is exported as fuel to the Continent. Asked for his thoughts on the definition of RDF released by the Environment Agency last month, Mr Mountain claims it was “very vague” and would like to see the regulator take a more direct approach to tackling fraud in the sector. “We batch code every bale rather than by boat,” he adds. “And we send material off to be verified by the labs.”
On top of the improvements to SRF storage, Mid UK is looking to boost the recycling side of its operation. Mid UK is keen to explore more automation in its plastics recycling, having invested in a Titech optical sorter to separate materials on its lines. The upgrades have enabled Mid UK to think about introducing new services to Lincolnshire county council, from which it process 70,000 tonnes of dry mixed recyclables per year under a contract awarded to the firm in July this year.
PTT
“We want to be able to offer pots, tubs and trays recycling to them,” says Mr Mountain. “We have been able to extract pots, tubs and trays, we have done that as a trial run with a view to roll out to councils. We are trying to turn a waste product into a new product. Anything we can’t recycle because there isn’t an end market we will then process into an SRF.”
The future for the company certainly appears to be one of expansion, ready to handle difficult materials as well as generating recyclables and SRF.
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