UK wood recycling levels will grow by up to 100,000 tonnes in three years following the release of more than £500,000 of funding for two recycling projects.
The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) awarded the money, designed to boost production of higher value recycled products, to GI Hadfield & Son Ltd and AW Jenkinson Woodwaste Ltd in an open competition to increase processing capacity in the UK wood recycling sector. WRAP received EC State Aids clearance to distribute the funds.
Manchester-based GI Hadfield & Son was one of the first UK reprocessors to supply recycled wood chip to the panelboard industry and has recently diversified into higher value alternative markets, such as quality animal bedding.
The grant will help the company construct an additional processing plant and buy associated equipment to help it develop alternative markets. This will lead to a minimum additional 70,000 tonnes of wood waste being recycled over the next three years.
AW Jenkinson Woodwaste, a major reprocessor in Scotland, will use the funding to build a woodwaste recycling operation at Blochairn, Glasgow, on the site of Shanks Waste Solutions’ new materials reclaimation facility. Within three years the project is expected to divert and recycle at least 17,000 tonnes of wood.
WRAP chief executive Jennie Price said: “These awards represent an important milestone in WRAP’s work to increase the UK’s wood recycling infrastructure. Both projects combine value for money with a clear commitment to developing new and existing markets for recycled wood.”
