New £1m Eco plant set to save councils thousands of pounds

A £1 MILLION investment by a Dorset recycling company looks set to save council taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds every year.

Eco Sustainable Solutions has installed new state-of-the-art equipment at its Parley site to recycle gully waste and street sweepings including leaves, grit, sand and silt.

The plant, which will handle up to 30,000 tonnes annually, means that local authorities now have an alternative to using landfill sites for disposal. Landfill charges, including disposal, tax and haulage, are currently in excess of £100 per standard tonne.

Eco has already signed contracts with several councils and talks are at an advanced stage with other local authorities.

Trelawney Dampney, Eco’s Managing Director, estimated that councils could save up to 30 per cent on landfill charges with total savings potentially running into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

He said: “The Environment Agency dropped something of a bombshell in 2012 when it warned that residues from street sweepings and gully waste was not suitable for producing quality compost.

“Now, thanks to our £1 million investment, we’ve found a solution which also has the added benefit of saving many thousands of pounds. Needless to say the local authorities are delighted and were very quick to sign on the dotted line.”

Eco’s new road sweeping/gully waste recycling system has been supplied and installed by CDEnviro.

The plant is due to be in full operation by early next year. The installation also includes concrete hard standing, a haul road and an electricity and water supply.

Products recycled from the road sweepings and gully waste will include 10 and 20mm secondary aggregates, grit sand and compost. A maximum of 20 per cent will go to landfill.

Eco annually processes 150,000 tonnes of material at Parley, the UK’s leading purpose-built site for organics recycling and renewable energy. End products include enriched topsoil, compost and woodchip.

Eco was founded in 1993 and now employs 46 people with an annual turnover of £11 million.

The company currently handles 250,000 tonnes of organic material each year across four facilities.