Ward Recycling in glass cleaning and MRF investment

The company has purchased a £385,000 Lyndex baler, which bales sorted finished products and has increased the payloads of vehicles leaving the South Bank site.

According to Ward Recycling the increased performance of the machine performance has allowed faster throughput resulting in more tonnage being sorted and a reduction in energy consumption.

Glass

The glass media side of the business, which produces a product free from sharps and used in filtering water for human consumption, has invested £105,000 in the installation of a trommel and a series of new conveyors. These have been supplied by Ken Mills Engineering and will screen out contaminants and improve the purity of Ward’s final product.

As well as being used to filter drinking water, the glass media is also used as a high-quality replacement for silica sand used in swimming pool filtration systems and are frequently utilised as an environmentally friendly shot blasting abrasive.

Gareth Godwin, manager at Ward Recycling, said: “We receive and process huge volumes of glass from commercial and household collections, which requires a lean operating model and efficient processes throughout our business.

“This is the latest in a series of investments that have improved efficiency and as a result increased our capacity and ability to easily manage any cyclical influxes in demand.

“As well as delivering efficiency gains, the new screening system will enable us to recover more viable glass from our recycling inputs – reducing wastage and ensuring as much material as possible is processed for reuse.”

Contracts

The investment in new kit at the site comes shortly after the company announced that it had won a major contract to process dry recyclables on behalf of two North Yorkshire councils. Ward Recycling was awarded the three-year contract by Richmondshire and Hambleton district for the processing of up to 8,000 tonnes of material per-year.

Up to £3.2 million has been invested in the site in recent years, supported by a £500,000 grant from Let’s Grow – a Regional Growth Fund programme operated in partnership with Trinity Mirror, BE Group and UNW LLP. Former Business Secretary Vince Cable visited the site to officially open the extension to its glass clean-up operation in 2015 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Ward Recycling employs 146 people and has a turnover in excess of £8 million.