Viridor awarded 10-year Plymouth MRF contract

Work will begin this month on developing the existing facility, which was previously mothballed by the council, with a view to opening in April 2015.

The council said the previous MRF was not up to the job, but that the new facility would enable residents to recycle glass from their doorstep for the first time.

According to Viridor, the nominal capacity of the upgraded MRF will be 25,000 tonnes per year on a single shift basis, although the capacity could increase to 40,000 tonnes per year were it to run two shifts per day, depending on input composition.

As part of the agreement, Viridor yesterday (May 1) began taking Plymouth city councils recyclables, which will be sent to the firms MRF in Kent until the 6 million Chelson Meadow facility is completed.

As well as recovering cartons, aluminium and steel cans, mixed paper, cardboard and glass, the facility will have five near infra-red optical sorters to enable different types of plastic to be segregated.

Viridor claims the process will achieve an exceptionally high quality output from the input material.

Chris Jonas, head of strategic development at Viridor, said: Viridor is delighted to deliver projects such as this and invest in state-of-the-art sortation equipment on behalf of our local authority clients. This facility reflects Viridors focus on delivering quality recyclate and meeting the requirements of our material reprocessors. This MRF site will be supported by Viridors other specialist glass, paper and plastics recycling plants that we are developing.

Plymouth councillor Brian Vincent, cabinet member for the environment, said: This is a significant landmark for us. We have wanted glass recycling right on peoples doorsteps for some time, but needed to replace the material recycling facility we had as it was not up to the job.

This partnership with Viridor will not only help the council keep waste out of landfill and council tax down but will make recycling easier for residents.

The announcement comes a month after Viridor renewed its contract with the Suffolk Waste Partnership to sort an estimated 50,000 tonnes of mixed household recyclables from all seven authorities in the county at its Great Blakenham MRF (see letsrecycle.com story).