WOOD ARRIVAL HAILS LANDMARK FOR RECYCLING ON TEESSIDE
Press Release - July 2006
A new business on Teesside has accepted its first wood on site to recycle into fuel that will be used to generate electricity.
UK Wood Recycling (UKWR) will produce 80,000 tonnes of recycled wood chip a year to help fuel the £60 million Wilton 10 Biomass Power Station being built on the Wilton International site near Redcar.
Stuart Howarth, Commercial Director for UKWR, which has a purpose-built recycling facility next to the Wilton 10 power station, said: “It’s very exciting to see the first wood arrive on site.
“The wood recycling facility is still under construction, but we are now licensed to receive wood. We can take all non-hazardous wood types, apart from treated timbers such as telegraph poles and railway sleepers. This is very different to most recycling companies who are restricted to taking specific types of wood.”
As well as producing wood chip for the boiler, UKWR will also use the recycled wood to produce a range of products including horse, cattle and poultry bedding.
The company, which was launched this summer, has so far employed six people who have been recruited locally with the help of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council’s Routes to Employment team, based at the South Tees Skills Centre.
Stuart said: “The Routes to Employment team have been fantastic in helping us to identify local people suitable for the jobs we have vacant. They advertised the roles for us, provided us with facilities for interviews and provided training for people who needed certain skills in order to meet our requirements.
“Over the next two years we will be employing around 35 people and hope to work with the skills centre on all recruitment.”
Construction of the UKWR site will continue over the summer and the business is expected to be fully operation by December. The Wilton 10 Power Station, owned by SembCorp Utilities UK, is now more than half way through construction. It is expected to be fully operational by the summer of 2007.
UK Wood Recycling Limited reduce the amount of wood being sent to landfill by recycling recovered wood to produce a range of products including horse, poultry and cattle bedding, equestrian surfaces and wood chip to fuel Wilton 10.
