Forging a waste revolution

The land where the foundry for Platt Brothers engineering works once forged Oldham’s industrial revolution is now the site of a new industry — waste.

The Arkwright Street site is home to the 21st century’s state-of-the-art waste recycling and disposal operation — part of a network of facilities commissioned by Oldham-based Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority.

The region’s £3 billion project makes big business of the everyday rubbish we throw away.

Janice Barker found out about the “reduce, re-use and recycle” philosophy driving the new operation.

Smart new fencing, well-marked Tarmac and a rubbish-free environment make a trip to the tip, if not a pleasure, then certainly not a chore, at the Arkwright Street household waste recycling centre.

A smiling face greets the public, checks if they have been before and know where they are going, and makes sure the right waste goes to the right bay.

In the background an impressive building in eye-pleasing shades of blue, with a curved roof and huge bay doors, deals with the household rubbish from Oldham’s black wheelie bins.

And on the site of the former Platt’s foundry, workmen are boring piles and pouring concrete to extend the building by 60 per cent.

It’s part of the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority’s “future proof” plans to stop our waste going to landfill, and ultimately recycle or re-use at least 75 per cent of it, although that will soon be 80 per cent according to the authority’s treasurer, John Bland.

And Alan Joynson, production controller for Viridor Waste which operates the site, believes that could easily be improved to 95 per cent. The five major centres around the Greater Manchester area will use mechanical and biological treatments to separate, shred and sieve the waste so that it can be dealt with in different ways.

Green waste is taken to Chichester Street in Rochdale to be made into compost, which Mr Bland says is in big demand at a new golf course in Wakefield.

Light materials like yoghurt pots form a fuel for a heat and power plant, metals and plastic can be recycled, glass reused and stones and rubble used as aggregates.

Four of the sites — but not Oldham — will also have digesters which will use the methane gas from rotting materials such as sewage sludge and food waste for heat and power, and even the waste from that process is dried off and used as a fuel.

The project is the largest waste services contract to be let in western Europe, made possible by the pioneering Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract negotiated by Mr Bland and his team between 2005 and 2009.

The new facilities funded by Viridor Laing and built by Costain, which is employing 800 people around Manchester, have sustained the jobs of 730 existing waste disposal employees and created 100 new permanent jobs.

Oldham’s mechanical and biological treatment plant should open in 2012, although until then it is still a waste compacting and transfer area. It will be 130 metres long, and supported by 650 concrete piles costing £500,000 to install. It is designed to cope with 100,000 tonnes of waste, 70,000 tonnes of it from Oldham.

Adrian Grocott, Costain’s site manager, said they have come across many underground features from the old Platt’s building including railway lines and arched flues for the furnace which have had to be removed.

“But all the soil from the site has been moved to one side and reused,” he added.

Local people will probably be most familiar with the site as the drop-off point for unwanted goods from engine oil to furniture, paper to paint cans and old TVs to books and bottles.

Lee Derbyshire, who has worked at the site for five years, first as part of Greater Manchester Waste, says the new look has made life a lot easier for staff and visitors too: “We can tell it is a lot better by the percentage of recycling we have increased. Keeping it tidy is all part of the job.

“The easier people find to use it, the more they will support it.”

And Mr Bland is keen for people to play their part in keeping up and improving Oldham’s recycling rate by not mixing up their waste and making it harder to recycle.

He added: “We need to find uses for what we recycle, it is no use producing something no-one needs.

“Big things like mattresses will be among the last 5 per cent, but we do have a pilot scheme to recycle furniture, which has recycled 158 items in three months.”

Steel and aluminium is recovered from cans, glass can go back into the glazing industry via Pilkingtons, smaller bits go into the bases for new roads, and there are machines which can detect the difference in plastics used in bottles for milk or soft drinks. The plastics can be ground into pellets to make new plastics, and exported to countries like China.

Even electrical items can literally be a gold mine. Mr Joynson pointed out that old televisions and computers contain gold in printed circuits, and solder, zinc and other alloys. Even the plastic cabinets can be ground up for re-use.