Pure Recyclings flagship MRF takes shape

The £8 million materials recycling facility being developed in Warwickshire by waste management firm Pure Recycling is starting to take shape following delays caused by weather and planning disputes.

The latest advances on the Ettington site, near Stratford-upon-Avon, comes two months after the firm was sold to civil engineering company Kier Group in a deal which could be worth over £7 million (see letsrecycle.com story).

The materials recycling facility (MRF), which is being developed on the site of an old slaughterhouse, is expected to sort 39,000 tonnes of commingled dry recyclables once it becomes fully operational.

The 60,000 sq ft building is being developed as Pure Recycling's flagship plant and includes sorting equipment from recycling machinery specialist Ken Mills Engineering. The metal structure and cladding are now in place on the MRF at the 37-acre site.

Commenting on work to date, Nik Spencer, director of Pure, said: “We are pleased that construction is well underway for this new facility. From the start the design brief was to deliver a state-of-the-art mechanical sorting plant, equipped with the very latest in mechanical and optical sorting technology to ensure that the highest level quality of materials can be recovered.”

Delivery

Delivery of the plant, which received planning permission in 2007 (see letsrecycle.com story), had been temporarily hampered by inclement weather in the region, although Pure stressed it would meet its proposed delivery date of April 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story).

However, the waste management firm was then hit with planning enforcement action by the Warwickshire county council in December 2009 over the use of “unlawful” temporary buildings to continue its operations at the Ettington site (see letsrecycle.com story).

Pure was granted retrospective planning permission for tipping and restoration work at the site by Warwickshire county council in January 2010 and the firm is now hopeful of delivering the plant by March 2011.

Material contracts for the plant are already in place, with Stratford-on-Avon district and Rugby borough councils each sending 10,000 tonnes and 8,000 tonnes of material-a-year respectively. And, in April, Tewkesbury borough council announced it handed Pure a £167,600 contract to bulk, transfer, sort and dispose of its commingled dry recyclables.

Commenting on his council's arrangements, Sean Lawson, head of environmental services at Rugby, said: “Through the partnership we have with Pure we have managed to seamlessly move to an alternate weekly collections system that has increased our dry recycling rate by 70% and placed us among the best performing councils in the country.

“We look forward to completion of this excellent facility, which will provide us with fantastic opportunities to continue to drive up our recycling levels even more.”