The Waste Recycling Group, which has a ten-year contract with Wigan council, this week opened a civic amenity section at the new Kirkless recycling centre after pressure came to close another CA site nearby. The new CA section will handle 20,000 tonnes of material a year, but the MRF facility will remain unused for the foreseeable future.
“The machinery going into the MRF is designed to produce biodegradable material,” explained Steve Woods, director of engineering at Wigan council. “The intention is for that residue to go to composting to boost the recycling rate even further, but there's a lot of doubt surrounding the requirements of composting legislation.”
He added: “WRG have not yet installed the machinery in the MRF, and the timescale is very much up in the air while we wait for the legislation to be sorted out.”
When it does become operational, the plan is for the MRF to sort and segregate recyclable materials such as organic kitchen waste, metals, glass, plastics, textiles, paper and cardboard from the local household waste stream.
WRG are also looking to develop a “dedicated waste composting centre” at another site in Wigan, where garden waste would be shredded and blended with the residue from the Kirkless MRF. The end product would then be used for restoring old landfill sites, collieries and other areas of land in need of improvement in the local area.
The government's re-think on regulations governing the composting of kitchen waste, sparked off by the foot and mouth epidemic, has been underway since June 2002. The matter is not expected to be resolved until at least December 2002.
 Councillor Mrs. Lynne Liptrot cuts the ribbon at the Kirkless CA site. Pictured with her (left to right) are Wigan director of engineering, Steve Woods; local resident Clara Melling – the first to use the new facility; Councillor Joan Hurst, and Waste Recycling North Western operations director, Joe Major. |
Recycling targets for Wigan council have been set at 40% by 2005 and 45% by 2010, with household recycling targets at 22% by 2005 and 42% by 2010. According to Best Value data for 2000-01, Wigan currently recycles around 3.5% of its total household waste and 96.5% goes to landfill.
CA site
Despite the delay on the MRF, WRG were pressured to open the civic amenity part of the Kirkless facility in order to replace the Amberswood CA site after planning permission expired there.
Joe Major, operations director for Waste Recycling's North Western Division, said: “The site at Amberswood had to close because planning permission for operations there had expired. However, it was also a small site that quickly became congested and did not allow us to maximise the opportunities for members of the public to recycle their waste.”
Householders can recycle glass, green garden waste, paper, cans, cardboard, timber and oils at the new Kirkless site.
The new site, which is under cover and has been designed with clear sign-posting and easy access for vehicles and pedestrians, is expected to boost the average recycling rate at Wigan's CA sites to over 50%. The rate has already jumped from 4% to 40% during WRG's ten-year management of Wigan's five CA sites from November 2000.
Subscribe for free