Milton Keynes recycling plant on track for March re-start

Plant operators Community Waste have told letsrecycle.com that new machinery is now on-site, and the company is to begin testing soon on the new equipment, provided by German manufacturer Stadler.

” The site is licensed to take in 93,000 tonnes of waste each year, once the new equipment is installed and the plant is running to full capacity we expect to be having to review this “
– Richard Cutts, Community Waste
The MRF at Old Wolverton was one of the first materials recycling facilities in the country, but had been out of action following the fire in April, which saw up to 80% of the building covered in flames at one point.

Richard Cutts, director of Community Waste, which took over the running of the MRF in October 2004, said testing would take place in the middle of February.

He said: “With new machinery there will always be teething troubles and we expect seven to 10 days of continual testing in order to ensure the plant produces the results that we want. We will be able to start taking waste from Milton Keynes in the first week of March.”

Capacity

Before the fire, the MRF had been processing waste paper, metal and plastic at a rate of about 75,000 tonnes a year, but Mr Cutts said this hadn't been full capacity at the time. The new equipment will mean an increased capacity from this, he said, adding that exactly how much recyclable waste the new system will be able to process will not be known until testing is carried out.

However, Mr Cutts said: “The site is licensed to take in 93,000 tonnes of waste each year, once the new equipment is installed and the plant is running to full capacity we expect to have to review this.”

Once up and running, Community Waste aims to run the plant at full capacity using three shifts, with enough contracts in place to keep the MRF running full time by the beginning of 2007.