Norfolk sorting plant up to speed

The facility in Hockwold, near Thetford, Norfolk, began taking material this month from local authorities including Basildon district council and Brentwood borough council.

The company estimates rejection rates of material processed at its facility will be as low as 3%. It said its plant will be more efficient and have less reliance on manual work compared with older facilities.

It said this was because of its technology which includes a baler, a bag splitter, two sorting platforms, a trommel and overband magnet.

Paper sorted in the MRF will also go to Stora Enso's Langerbrugge Mill in Gent, Belgium, as well as St Regis' Kemsley Mill in Sittingbourne, Kent.

Commingled

Shropshire-based Newport Paper buys in around 200,000 tonnes of recovered materials each year- mainly paper – from local authorities and waste management companies which it sells on to suppliers.

The company diversified into sorting operations because of the increasing popularity of commingled collections of recyclables from householders. Collections of mixed recyclables have been criticised by some sectors of the paper industry, who say the blend of recyclables contaminates the paper grades.

Mr Hoare previously told letsrecycle.com that if Newport Paper ran its own MRF, it could keep a close eye on quality (see letsrecycle.com story).

He said: “If we have our own MRF, we have got the opportunity to ensure the material is high quality. It's within our control to make sure there are no contaminants.”

Now that the facility is fully commissioned, he added: “I am delighted that our first MRF is now operational which gives us better control over the quality of recyclate given to reprocessors. It is also a great first step towards our ambitious plans to operate five MRFs by the end of 2010.”

Owned by Newport Paper, the Norfolk MRF was built by Spanish technology company Nicholls Jovisa Ltd and will be operated by Norfolk-based Freedom Recycling.

The facility will be powered by recycled cooking oil converted to electricity by a generator supplied and operated by Norfolk renewable energy firm Living Fuels.

The cooking oil will be collected from local authorities, caterers and restaurant chains any surplus electricity from the MRF will fed back to the national grid.