North Lincolnshire Waste Services Limited (NLWSL), part of the United Waste Group has already achieved recycling rate of almost 60% at the state-of-the-art site which was formally opened by Chris Mullin, junior environment minister, last month.
The site, at Cottage Beck Road in Scunthorpe, is capable of receiving 50,000 tonnes of household waste each year and is thought to be one of the busiest sites in the region with 3,000 visits each week.
Site manager Glennys Robinson explained that the bonus structure would help ensure that even more recycling was achieved at the site.
“We inherited a very good team when we took on the site a year ago. But we realised we needed to recycle more and more and the new bonus scheme will help us to increase the recycling of many materials, including paper, glass, textiles, wood and cardboard.”
The council owns eight household recycling centres in North Lincolnshire – four times as many per capita as other similar sized authorities in the country – and all are managed by NLWSL.
All eight centres have been redesigned/upgraded by the contractor in the past twelve months to maximise recycling activities, an action which, says United Waste, is paying dividends as current levels of recycling at these centres is now 65% of total input, an increase of 30% from previous year’s activities.
The Cottage Beck centre is on on a large split level site and consists of 12 bays with 40 cu yd containers accessed by walkways from the higher level, with additional recycling containers on a recycling island. A one-way traffic system has been incorporated to allow through flow of vehicles and minimise waiting time on the site and the main entrance road has been extended to eliminate queuing on Cottage Beck Road.
There is provision to cater for rubble and soil, and special household waste – such as waste oil, car batteries, and household asbestos – all of which are stored in secure containers.
A main feature is a large newspaper bulking bay designed and managed by which will store up to 50 tonnes at a time. This bay will take waste paper collected in blue bags from 38,000 properties in North Lincolnshire as part of the council’s current recycling activities and will enable further expansion and improvement of the scheme.
There are large cages for refrigerators, freezers and liquid petroleum gas bottles. Other recycling materials that can be deposited at the site include green garden waste, scrap metal, glass, paper, plastic bottles and drinks cans, textiles, and new to the site – wood and cardboard.
Speaking at the opening of the site, Robert Wheatley, chief executive of United Waste said: “I am delighted to note the already very large improvement in recycling levels since the site started to receive waste just a few weeks ago. This is a testament to the commitment of the people of North Lincolnshire who have already demonstrated their belief in sound environmental principles. I know they will now do even more and will shortly lead the Country in the separation of valuable materials for recycling.”
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