The success of the kerbside collections which feed the facility has taken the council by surprise. Jason Davies of the waste services team said: “There's been a tremendous response, plain and simple. We didn't think it would get that big.”
Roll out
The council expects the Coedcae Centre to handle 10,000 tonnes of material in 2002/03 and 15,000 tonnes the year after: a mixture of paper, cans, glass, garden waste and mixed dry recyclables collected from the kerbsides of 60,000 households. But the total municipal waste produced each year in Rhondda, Cynon and Taf is 123,000 tonnes, and the council wants to roll its kerbside collections out to all 105,000 households by the end of 2003.
Plans are already in preliminary stages for an 'Ec;o Park' which could process as much as 70,000 tonnes of municipal waste a year. Steve Richards, of the council's project management team for the planned facility, said: “We are looking to get a new Eco Park up and operating within the next 18 months. At 70,000 tonnes capacity, it will be one of the largest ones in Britain.”
The final conveyor, made by Wolverhampton-based Portable Conveyors, was recently installed in the new plant, 18 months after installation of equipment began. This conveyor is used to handpick mixed materials such as timber, plastic, metals, glass and paper.
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