New wood recycling facility opens in Middlesbrough
April 3, 2007 at 7:47 pm
The UK’s largest purpose built wood recycling facility has been officially opened by Lord Truscott, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy. The launch is part of a broader effort to make better use of waste wood in the UK.
The new plant at Wilton, near Middlesbrough, will produce around 80,000 tonnes of recycled wood chip a year for its neighbouring biomass power station, run by SembCorp Utilities UK Ltd. Using renewable and recycled resources, instead of fossil fuels, to produce electricity means reduced carbon dioxide emissions. Other products such as animal bedding, horse-riding surfaces, compost and panel board will also be produced.
The waste wood used by the plant will be sourced from local authorities, furniture manufacturers, packaging companies and waste companies. Any non-hazardous wood can be recycled using hammer mills, shredding and a decontamination process.
UK businesses produce around 2 million tones of wood waste each year. Households can also end up with unwanted wood from DIY, discarded furniture or tree-felling. Local authorities are increasingly offering facilities for collecting wood waste at local household waste centres.
The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has a website dedicated specifically to wood recycling, where you can type in your postcode to find your nearest wood recycling service.
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