The two-year contract with Warrington borough council, which officially began on November 1, will see UPM handle 16,000 tonnes of material every year from the boroughs commingled collections, with the first delivery expected at the end of this month.
UPM also has sorting contracts with Rochford, Cheshire East and Denbighshire councils.
The materials will be collected at the kerbside in blue wheeled bins by the council as part of its in-house collection service. The recyclables will then be bulked up at WSR Recyclings waste transfer station in nearby Widnes where they will be transported just 30 miles to the MRF to be sorted.
Integrated approach
The MRF has been purposely built on the same site as UPMs existing paper mill, which has the capacity to hand 640,000 tonnes of waste paper a year, producing 500,000 tonnes of newsprint. The MRF has a direct feed into the mill allowing paper to be sorted and then reprocessed into newsprint on site.
The MRF was opened in July 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story) and has the capacity to handle 270,000 tonnes of material every year. It is currently operating at approximately 40% of its full capacity and is expected to be reached after three years.
Approximately 99% of all materials sorted at the Shotton MRF remain in the UK, with 80% of them travelling only a few miles to be reprocessed.
Mike Burgess, national sourcing manager for UPM, said: Our integrated recycling approach ensures that not only can we recover recyclable materials at a very high rate but we also recycle material on our own site. UPM Shotton has been called a benchmark for sustainable manufacturing, with reduced CO2 emissions and a focus on minimising waste.
Collections
Warrington borough council currently offers residents a fortnightly commingled recyclables collection in which metals, cardboard, paper, plastics and glass are collected. As the Shotton MRF can sort six different grades of plastic and other materials, residents will also be able to recycle shredded paper, aerosols and Tetrapak from January 2012.
The council is expecting to achieve savings of 800,000 under the new contract through the sale of the materials which it hopes to reinvest in service for the city.
Councillor David Keane, executive board member for environment and public protection for Warrington borough council, said: This new contract will improve the service provided to residents by allowing them to recycle even more than ever through our blue bin scheme. Not only will the council save money through this new contract but we will also be paid more for the recyclables that we collect. All money earned will be reinvested into local services.
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