Works Visit to Biffa Materials Recycling Facility, Trafford Park
On Wednesday 26 October 2011 twelve Group members paid a visit to the Biffa Materials Recycling Facility at Trafford Park.
Founded over 90 years ago by the Biffa family as a haulage business largely dedicated to the collection of ashes, dust and clinker from coal-fired power stations in the London area; the business developed in the 1950s to include the excavation of sand, gravel and general waste collection and in the 1960s moved into the industrial waste market. From then on the company has gradually grown into what it is today.
After a short introduction and safety talk Mick Fairless and his colleague Phil escorted us in two groups of six round one of the most modern recycling facilities in Europe.
Established only 20 months ago at a cost of £25m this plant recovers mixed dry waste, (paper, card, plastic and metal) from both municipal and commercial waste collections.
These two waste streams are kept separate and loaded onto the start of a multiple conveyor system that moves the materials through rotating drums to grade it by size and density.
The automated plant uses a unique combination of mechanical and optical sorting systems and has been designed to operate with very high levels of automation and efficiency making it the most advanced plant in the UK. Trafford Park materials recycling facility processes plastics, aluminium, steel, paper and cardboard.
The waste is screened on arrival for any contaminants and any over sized materials are shredded to a suitable size for processing.
All of the waste is then subjected to be sorted by hand if the conveyor system has not managed to segregate correctly or there is a variance in weight, etc.
The majority of the equipment in the facility is manufactured in either Germany or Slovenia.
The plant processes approximately 200,000 tonnes per annum of mixed dry recyclable wastes and achieves recycling rates of 93%. The remaining 7% is treated offsite with only the final 1.4% actually going to landfill.
The majority of the waste received for recycling will come from Biffa’s commercial customers and households in the Greater Manchester area, providing them with the ability to achieve high recycling rates, avoid landfill and reduce their carbon footprint.
At present 93% of all materials brought into the facility can be recovered after separation and then sold on.
Landfill costs are getting so prohibitive rising from the current £56 per tonne this year to £72 per tonne in two years time that it is becoming a luxury rather than the norm it used to be, thus encouraging the need to recycle.
Conversion of waste HDPE is possible into food grade materials for milk bottles (these are found in M & S for their organic milk), also as food trays and cosmetics bottles. This is undertaken at the Redcar facility on Teesside.
After a question and answer session Derek thanked our hosts Mick and Phil, also thanks to Mike and Cathy for organising the event.