Royal opening of new Materials Recycling Facility
11 March 2011
The new Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) at Smugglers Way in Wandsworth was officially opened by Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal, on 10 March 2011.
The £25 million MRF will process over 84,000 tonnes of dry recyclables a year from the Western Riverside Waste Authority area, making it a major part of London’s waste infrastructure. Incorporating the very latest technology, it sorts mixed recyclables into plastic, metal cans, paper and glass, which are then sent to processors where the materials are used to make new items. The facility contains over 100 fast moving conveyor belts and an array of hi-tech devices, including optical sorters and magnets that allow the recyclables to be separated into a range of commodities.
Princess Anne also visited a Reuse Workshop which is being constructed on site and unveiled a plaque to mark the occasion. The Mayors of each of the Authority’s four boroughs also attended the event, and following the official opening ceremony, guests were invited to tour the facility and observe the recycling processes in operation.
Tim Ahern, Chairman of the Authority said: “The Reuse Workshop and the MRF, combined with our long running ‘Recycle Western Riverside’ campaign, clearly demonstrate the Authority’s determination to manage as much waste as possible, as high as possible up the waste hierarchy.”
Peter Gerstrom, Chief Executive of Cory Environmental, said: “The opening of the MRF is an important step for Cory’s operations in London. The MRF will have a very significant impact on our abilities to recycle great volumes of waste going forward. This official opening marks the culmination of a long process and I would like to thank everybody involved for their hard work on the project.”
Cory transports waste by barge and has been operating on the river Thames for over 100 years. By using the river to transport waste Cory saves over 100,000 lorry movements from the capital’s busy streets each year. Waste that cannot be recycled will be transported by river from the Smugglers Way MRF to Cory’s Riverside Resource Recovery facility at Belvedere, which will start operations during 2011 and will be one of the UK’s most efficient energy recovery plants, managing some 585,000 tonnes of residual waste each year.