The firm, which is owned by Swedish consumer goods and paper company SCA, has applied for planning consent for an existing 6.7 acre site in the city to allow it to develop a 200,000 tonne-a-year MRF.
SCA Recycling managing director, Ken Stevens, said: “This is a significant strategic move by SCA. It will allow us to develop quality partnerships to ensure our new and existing customers can make the best of a new era of developing resources from waste.
“This will enhance the ability of SCA to compete successfully where customers place high demands on sustainability,” he added. “Recycling has become an essential part of everyday life and the UK desperately needs merchant facilities to meet the growing requirement for cost effective, sustainable alternatives to landfill.”
SCA Recycling currently operates eight paper recovery and baling facilities across the Midlands and South of England, with the company's main task being to provide the raw materials for its parent company's recovered paper-based tissue, graphic and containerboard paper mills.
It hopes to have the new Southampton MRF up-and-running by the summer of 2009.
The company's decision to move into dry recyclables recovery follows a growing trend among paper recyclers to show interest in building MRFs, and last year both Shropshire-based Newport Paper and Swedish company Holmen Paper outlined plans to build a number of MRFs around the UK.
However, concerns have been expressed by the Confederation of Paper Industries over the quality of paper recovered from commingled collections which are sorted by MRFs (see letsrecycle.com story ).
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