Woodford
Recycling Services Ltd, based in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire has recently
installed the latest MRF to be designed and built by BlueMAC, supplied by Blue
Machinery Central. What makes this new and extremely efficient materials
recycling facility so unusual is that it is believed to be the very first
installation of its kind to be powered by on site generated renewable energy,
producing what is effectively a complete recycling loop. Through its subsidiary
Woodford Waste Management Services Ltd and Arevon Energy (who operate the
biogas operation on site) the total source of power is provided for the entire
plant, with 1 Megawatt also exported to the National Grid providing enough electricity
to supply 1500 homes.
Mark Farren owns Woodford Recycling Services Ltd, starting the business in 2010. Rational yet spectacular growth has seen Mr Farren’s operations encompass a national waste brokerage service, skip hire, wood processing, crushing, screening and waste processing with the latter achieving an 85% recyclables recovery rate from incoming waste streams. Employing 20 personnel and covering Cambridgeshire and the surrounding areas, Woodford Recycling Services decided to source a new MRF from BlueMAC as part of a £2M investment to increase its efficiency and capability in recycling and reclamation whilst further improving vital and environmentally desirable tip-to-landfill reductions. “We looked at other potential suppliers as well as BlueMAC” said Mark Farren “but we were highly impressed with the design and robust build quality of the BlueMAC offering, as well as Blue Machinery’s in-depth knowledge and experience in designing and installing waste recycling plant, with over 140 already at work throughout the UK. We visited the BlueMAC factory to discuss our requirements and the design and engineering capabilities we saw there gave us total confidence in making our investment with the company”.
The MRF was designed to be installed in Woodford’s brand new under cover premises in Huntingdon, providing a compact yet efficient materials flow from incoming waste stream to final separated and clean recyclable products. A belt feeder conveys the material to an 8.5m long X 2.5m diameter trommel screen, which features a split drum of 20mm mesh at the front for extracting -20mm fines and a 40mm screen mesh for the 20mm-40mm hardcore. A rightangle turn takes the material on to a blower for “lights” removal and thence on to the bespoke picking station, which is to commercial standard with plugs, lighting and heating all standard with BlueMAC, providing a safe, comfortable and productive working environment for the picking teams. The picking station is a 5-bay, double sided configuration with five drop chutes for “valuables” such as non-ferrous metals. The conveyor then takes the remaining hardcore under an overband magnet for ferrous metals removal, before a secondary final blower gives the material a last clean-up.
Woodford Recycling’s BlueMAC MRF is designed to achieve a throughput of 20 tonnes per hour which provides an additional and future-proof capacity for Woodford Recycling as their anticipated growth continues and they strive for an eventual 100% diversion from landfill.
