New WRAP Capital Support Helps Divert Over 40,000 Tonnes
31 May 2007
WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) has committed to investing over £670,000 in new wood recycling facilities, which will increase the quantity of post-consumer wood waste diverted from landfill.
Urban Forest Limited and McGrath Brothers (Waste Control) Limited will receive the part-funding to install new capacity to process recycled wood into value-added products. The funding was provided as part of WRAP’s Capital Support Programme, and encourages the sector to build new wood reprocessing infrastructure targeted at higher value products.
Peter Maddox, WRAP’s Manufacturing Development Programme Manager, said: “WRAP looked for projects that could create new capacity to process post-consumer wood waste and serve clearly defined end-markets. These two projects are excellent examples that demonstrate that with the right facilities, waste wood can be put to good use and deliver significant returns. Waste material that would have normally gone to landfill is being successfully recycled into usable products that have a high value and are in demand.”
McGrath Brothers (Waste Control) Limited, based in Hackney, London was awarded a WRAP capital grant worth £325,000 through an open competition process. A new wood recycling facility with a total investment of over £1 million will be installed in Barking, Essex which aims to fill a gap previously identified by WRAP for wood recycling in the South East of England. The facility will be able to process in excess of 21,000 tonnes of waste wood every year.
David McGrath, Managing Director of McGrath Brothers (Waste Control) Ltd, commented: “As a result of this project, we will be able to recycle large amounts of waste wood that mainly comes to us from the construction industry. We are developing new markets for the recycled products and will be focusing on high value added products such as surfacing and equine bedding.”
Urban Forest Limited, based in Newry, Co Down also received support from WRAP, with a capital grant worth £345,000 to expand and upgrade an existing facility. The funding will contribute to the purchase of new equipment with a total value of over £1.5 million. Air grading, fine screening and cleaning equipment will facilitate the manufacture of more value-added products from waste wood. Two automatic bagging plants will also be installed. At full capacity it will be capable of reprocessing over 19,000 tonnes of waste wood a year, which will be diverted from landfill.
Patrick Durkan, Managing Director of Urban Forest Limited, said: “Financial support from WRAP has allowed us to develop our facilities further to automate the refinement of the animal bedding we produce. Importantly, it has also enabled us to expand into the more profitable area of domestic pet bedding, providing an even stronger business case for the use of recycled wood.”
This WRAP funding supports the increased tonnage of wood that is being recycled. Wood is sourced from local authority waste facilities, wood packaging remnants, off cuts from manufacturing facilities, as well as skip waste, commercial, demolition and construction waste.
In order to be eligible for WRAP capital support, projects required clearly defined end-markets, applications or products for the processed wood, where the majority will be used for value-added applications. These included landscaping applications, horticultural products, equestrian bedding and surfacing and animal bedding.
Urban Forest Limited and McGrath Brothers (Waste Control) Limited will receive the part-funding to install new capacity to process recycled wood into value-added products. The funding was provided as part of WRAP’s Capital Support Programme, and encourages the sector to build new wood reprocessing infrastructure targeted at higher value products.
Peter Maddox, WRAP’s Manufacturing Development Programme Manager, said: “WRAP looked for projects that could create new capacity to process post-consumer wood waste and serve clearly defined end-markets. These two projects are excellent examples that demonstrate that with the right facilities, waste wood can be put to good use and deliver significant returns. Waste material that would have normally gone to landfill is being successfully recycled into usable products that have a high value and are in demand.”
McGrath Brothers (Waste Control) Limited, based in Hackney, London was awarded a WRAP capital grant worth £325,000 through an open competition process. A new wood recycling facility with a total investment of over £1 million will be installed in Barking, Essex which aims to fill a gap previously identified by WRAP for wood recycling in the South East of England. The facility will be able to process in excess of 21,000 tonnes of waste wood every year.
David McGrath, Managing Director of McGrath Brothers (Waste Control) Ltd, commented: “As a result of this project, we will be able to recycle large amounts of waste wood that mainly comes to us from the construction industry. We are developing new markets for the recycled products and will be focusing on high value added products such as surfacing and equine bedding.”
Urban Forest Limited, based in Newry, Co Down also received support from WRAP, with a capital grant worth £345,000 to expand and upgrade an existing facility. The funding will contribute to the purchase of new equipment with a total value of over £1.5 million. Air grading, fine screening and cleaning equipment will facilitate the manufacture of more value-added products from waste wood. Two automatic bagging plants will also be installed. At full capacity it will be capable of reprocessing over 19,000 tonnes of waste wood a year, which will be diverted from landfill.
Patrick Durkan, Managing Director of Urban Forest Limited, said: “Financial support from WRAP has allowed us to develop our facilities further to automate the refinement of the animal bedding we produce. Importantly, it has also enabled us to expand into the more profitable area of domestic pet bedding, providing an even stronger business case for the use of recycled wood.”
This WRAP funding supports the increased tonnage of wood that is being recycled. Wood is sourced from local authority waste facilities, wood packaging remnants, off cuts from manufacturing facilities, as well as skip waste, commercial, demolition and construction waste.
In order to be eligible for WRAP capital support, projects required clearly defined end-markets, applications or products for the processed wood, where the majority will be used for value-added applications. These included landscaping applications, horticultural products, equestrian bedding and surfacing and animal bedding.
Editor's notes:
- WRAP works in partnership to encourage and enable businesses and consumers to be more efficient in their use of materials and recycle more things more often. This helps to minimise landfill, reduce carbon emissions and improve our environment.
- Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by Government funding from Defra and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- Working in seven key areas (Construction, Retail, Manufacturing, Organics, Business Growth, Behavioural Change, and Local Authority Support), WRAP’s work focuses on market development and support to drive forward recycling and materials resource efficiency within these sectors, as well as wider communications and awareness activities including the multi-media national Recycle Now campaign for England.
- WRAP established the Manufacturing team in April 2006 to maximise the amount and quality of recyclate used by UK manufacturing operations. In WRAP’s 2006-2008 Business Plan, the Manufacturing team’s aim is to secure an additional 220,000 tonnes a year of increased use of recyclate by the UK manufacturing sector.
- Information on the WRAP manufacturing programmes can be found at http://www.wrap.org.uk/manufacturing/index.html
Katie Donlan/Andrew Scales/Lucy Willatt
Kinross + Render PR
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wrap@kinrossrender.com
Press Office
Senior Press Officer
WRAP
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press.office@wrap.org.uk
