A materials handling facility that will put waste cardboard, paper, glass, wood, metals and plastics to planet-helping new uses is now operating at the Orthios company’s site at Holyhead, Anglesey.
The main purpose of the plant is to provide Orthios with a stream of hard-to-recycle plastics for processing in its innovative Plastics-to-Oil unit where they will be converted into a range of products which can substitute for materials currently dependent on fossil fuel extraction.
But a by-product of the process will involve sorting and salvaging many items of commercial and industrial waste for re-use or re-purposing by UK-based third parties rather than adding to landfill or environmental pollution.
Orthios Waste & Logistics Director Warren Steele says:
“It is high time we stopped seeing waste as a problem and recognised instead that it is a valuable resource which can help us to address the climate emergency by reducing our dependency on fossil fuels, cutting CO2 emissions and adopting a more sustainable lifestyle while also creating worthwhile jobs and business opportunities”.
Around 80 people are now working in the new materials recycling facility (MRF) with another 35 currently preparing the company’s ground-breaking Plastics-to-Oil (P-2-O) unit to become fully operational early in the New Year.
Sean McCormick added:
“As well as creating jobs and apprenticeships and putting waste to beneficial use by lessening how much we drain from Earth’s finite resources we are also keeping our own carbon impact as low as possible.
This includes repurposing, rather than rebuilding, infrastructure left over from when Anglesey Aluminium owned this site; making the P-2-O unit self-heating and ensuring that the tiny % of waste which can’t be re-used in the UK will go via boat from our jetty and the Port of Holyhead to partners in Sweden and Holland where it will be used to heat homes”.
Orthios has invested around £4 million in equipping the MRF with the latest machinery and more than £70 million overall in acquiring the 800,000 sq metres site and undertaking one UK’s biggest restorations of industrial land.
