Veolia Environmental Services operates 5 Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) in the United Kingdom. Recyclable material collected from households can include newspapers and magazines, cardboard, junk mail, food and drinks cans and plastic bottles. These items are taken to our MRFs to be separated, sorted and sent onwards for reprocessing and recycling.
As the need for progressive handling of waste materials is growing, Veolia Environmental Services is expanding its operational infrastructure. This will provide a range of facilities that recover an increasingly wide spectrum of materials and supply valuable resources to the secondary market.
Developments include windrow composting, metal can separation, municipal bulk mixed recyclables separation, commercial paper and plastic processing, and a wood shredding operation.
Alton MRF
The Alton MRF provides Hampshire with the capacity to sort about 93,000 tonnes of paper, cardboard, plastics and metals collected on commingled collections from households across the county. Along with the MRF in Portsmouth, the Alton facility means Hampshire now has sorting capacity for about 160,000 tonnes of recyclables each year. The county's waste partnership – which includes the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton as well as the county and districts – is aiming to reach a 50% recycling rate for its annual 900,000 tonnes of household waste. The county recycled about 33% of household waste in 2006.
Greenwich MRF
Veolia Environmental Services' latest investment is a partnership project with Greenwich Council, resulting in the establishment of the most technologically advanced MRF in the UK. Combining the expertise gained from designing and operating the Veolia Environmental Services MRF in Rainham, with the latest proven international technology, the new 75,000 tonnes per annum facility processes mixed dry recyclables (MDR) including glass. The ability to introduce and accept glass into co-mingled kerbside collections is a key component of the Veolia Environmental Services-Greenwich partnership. Glass makes up around 9% of the municipal waste stream and including it significantly increases recycling potential for local authorities.
Portsmouth MRF
Portsmouth Materials Recovery Facility was the first facility of its kind to be developed in Hampshire with the Project Integra partnership. The facility receives recyclables from kerbside collections and has an operating capacity of 67,000 tonnes of material per year. Newspapers, magazines and pamphlets, card, plastic bottles, ferrous and non-ferrous metals are separated and sorted at the facility ready to be reprocessed into new products.
Rainham MRF
Veolia Environmental Services' integrated waste management facility at Rainham in Essex is progressively implementing a large range of sustainable waste management options. It is also home to a 50,000 tonnes per annum purpose-built Domestic Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). This MRF recycles dry co-mingled recyclables from household waste, including clean paper and cardboard, food and drinks cans, aluminium foil, plastics bottles and containers and thin plastic carrier bags.
Facilities currently available include:
• Composting
• Soil screening
• Wood shredding
• River linked site with its own jetty
• Leachate treatment plant
Sheffield MRF
The paper and card collected from the blue bin kerbside collection service in Sheffield is taken to Veolia Environmental Services Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) to be sorted and graded before it is sent on to be recycled.
Over 98% of materials that you and your family put in the blue bin are recycled into new products, which may end up back on supermarket shelves or in your kitchen cupboard.
The MRF helps to guarantee the quality of materials sent for recycling so manufacturers can use it to make recycled products. When the materials have been graded it is easier for manufacturers to use them because they know what they are working with and what they have to do to the old material to make it into a new cereal box, a newspaper, a magazine or writing paper.
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