Timberpak to open second new wood recycling site

Just days after officiallyunveiling a 2 million wood recyclingoperaton in Washington, near Sunderland last week (July 13), the companys operations director, Mark Hayton, revealed that another site at Bellshill in North Lanarkshire, Scotland was due to open imminently.

The site will be Timberpaks third, after the Washington facility and the companys flagship recycling operation in Leeds. It will provide recycled woodchip to the panelboard factory in Ayrshire operated by Timberpaks parent company, the board manufacturer Egger.

Our third site, which has not been officially opened, is in Bellshill in Scotland, just South of Glasgow, Mr Hayton said. It used to be a carpet factory and involves a similar investment to that in Washington.

Mr Hayton explained that the development of the two sites was part of ongoing efforts by the company to secure feedstock for Eggers chipboard plants as low down the supply chain as possible particularly in light of the growing scarcity of virgin material.

He said: The closer down the supply chain the more security of supply we can get for the wood. We are hoping to build on that.

Company

Timberpak started trading in November 2000, operating from a licensed recycling centre at the Cross Green Industrial Park in Leeds. Originally handling around 20,000 tonnes of material a year from Leeds city council, the company grew to manage around 85,000 tonnes last year.

All Timberpak sites are responsible for material acceptance, sorting, shredding, loading and despatch. Specialist hook loader vehicles collect roll-on, roll-off bins measuring 40 cubic yards from its customer sites which are located along the M62 corridor, across the North East and around the Glasgow area. Each site operates a standard 25 mile radius collection service.

Mr Hayton explained that the primary purpose of Timberpak sites was to remove any MDF which could not be used to produce chipboard and other contaminants from material which arrived on site, such as glass, concrete and fabric. This, he claimed, was vital because EGGER is renowned for the quality of its chipboard, which is used to produce furniture.

The material is then shredded into large chips before being transported to EGGERs chipboard factories, where it is further processed into fine matchstick-sized pieces.

Washington

The Timberpak site in Washington is located on the Pattinson Industrial Estate. It is already processing pallets, old furniture and other waste wood from local authorities, waste management companies, factories, skip-hire firms and builders since its official opening last week.

Mr Hayton said: It is going very well. We are doing over 1,000 tonnes a week at the moment and are on target to handle 50,000 tonnes per anmum. We are accepting wood on site and running a collection service too.

Equipment at the site includes Doppstadt AK430 and DZ750 shredders, loading shovels and excavators.

Recycled wood woodchips from the facility go to Eggers chipboard factory at Hexham, Northumberland, where it makes up over 40% of the raw material used in the manufacturing process. Timberpak provides 80% of the recycled woodchip which EGGER uses.

The official opening by Sunderlands Mayor, Councillor Norma Wright, was attended by the companys 10 new employees. The enclosed site has Environment Agency accreditation and a state-of-the-art water misting system to minimise airborne dust, supplied by local company Probe Industries.

Speaking at the time, Mr Hayton said: This is an important day for us and finally realises our ambition to have a site serving Northumberland, Tynesdie, Wearside, Teesside and Durham. It complements our operation in Yorkshire and also becomes our new head office covering Scotland and the North.

Sunderland city councils portfolio holder for sustainability, councillor Tom Wright, added: We obviously welcome such as fantastic commercial development based here in our city at a time when we are all working so hard together to increase recycling rates and reduce the amount of domestic and commercial waste going to landfill.

Sonae

Commenting on the market in general, Mr Hayton said that the temporary closure of chipboard manufacturer Sonaes plant in Knowsley following a fire in June had not had much impact on Timberpaks operation because it was not that close except creating a slight rise in the amount of wood coming into its Leeds site.

But, he explained that companies such as Egger could not put more recycled woodchip into their panelboard, meaning that much material which would have gone to Sonae might struggle to find a home. The volumes which arent going to Sonae are just going to sit in the market place, he predicted.

• Meanwhile, wood recyclers in Southern England are noticing some market changes in the wake of the temporary closure of Sonae. Some recyclers told letsrecycle.com that they felt the two board mills in Southern England including Norbord in South Molton and Kronospan in Chirk were tending to be stricter in the quality controls they imposed and others felt that prices for material were changing. Other wood recyclers in the North of England are understood to have considered raising their gate fees in response to increased amounts of waste wood on the market.