A recycling initiative that involves turning wood waste into useable products has been commended at the Housebuilding Innovation 2007 Awards.
Construction Industry Recycling Centre for the Local Environment (Circle) Liverpool Ltd is a joint venture between Seddon Group, PLUS Housing Group and The Riverside Group and received a Highly Commended award after judges decided that it was an “innovative solution to a pressing industry issue”.
Circle will process around 35,000 tonnes of waste from the construction sector in 2008, with about 5,000 tonnes being wood.
Seddon chairman Rod Sellers said the initative opened up a number of added-value applications for recycled timber.
“Derived from a range of sources, including offcuts from the build process, material from refurbishment projects and community collections, the recycling centres enable wood otherwise destined for the tip to be turned into useable materals,” said Mr Sellers.
“This could be anything from bedding for horses to pellets for fuel to processing into MDF panels”.
Mr Sellers added that supply is currently running above demand but said the company is “working hard to drive uptake of the concept”, including offering local social businesses a free skip of wood waste to take away and create added value items.
