We must learn to move mountains

Dec 17 2007 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

We must learn to move mountains

BUT government legislation, including landfill taxes, expected to rise from £24 to £32 a tonne, as well as pressure from environmental groups, has placed waste recycling at the top of the political agenda. This can be seen in gardens and backyards every day, as householders distribute different types of rubbish into the appropriately coloured bin.

This, however, goes a long way beyond dad scratching his head, before dropping a beer bottle into the grey bin, where it rubs shoulders with a fruit tin.

After the sorting processes, which involve screening and hand-picking, more than half the waste that comes into Gaskells is treated and then sent for recycling. The rest goes into landfill.

“But the process factories can only take the material in a baled state,” says Craig. Getting it into that condition is an important part of the work here.

Sliding down the conveyor belt was a Daily Post, soon to be baled and pulped for recycling, as yesterday’s news becomes tomorrow’s paper in a world which never stops.

Seventy five thousand tonnes of waste a year come into this £2.5m recycling facility.

Jonathan, an old boy of Wellington School, Bebington, began the business 17 years ago. “I started with a Liverpool City Council bin lorry which I bought from the motor auctions for £450 when I was 19,” he says. “I had to convince the bank to lend me the money. I worked very hard, seven days a week, collecting people’s waste.”

HIS company now has eight lorries, six of them mobile compacting vehicles of between 300 and 450 horsepower, which cost around £130,000 each.

“I had left school with no qualifications. I wanted to work for myself from day one. I had worked for a demolition contractor before that.

“I bought this site in 2002 and developed from just collection to recycling 2½ years ago. The key to the work here is pre-treatment. We intend to redevelop the plant in the next 12 months and automate it more.

“Renewable energy is one of my great interests. There is so much energy in the waste. We need time and legislation to make it profitable to get it out by thermal or other means.”

When he began the business, Jonathan was already aware of the rising concern about the environment, leading to his investment of £2.5m in this site. The advantage he claims over competitors is being able to collect and pre-treat the rubbish at the same site, before it is moved for recycling.

But, at 36, Jonathan is to experience the most cherished moment of recycling known to man. His wife, Kate, is expecting their first child on January 3.

davidcharters@dailypost.co.uk

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