NEW STAFF HELP WOOD RECYCLING PLANT GEAR UP FOR OFFICIAL OPENING

12th March, 2007

Teesside-based UK Wood Recycling – the UK’s largest purpose-built wood recycling facility – is gearing up for its official opening later this month with a number of newly appointed staff.

The company, situated at the Wilton International site in Redcar, is to be officially opened by Lord Truscott, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Energy, on March 23rd.

And it has recruited a number of local people from Grangetown and the surrounding areas in preparation for the opening. They include: general labourers Nicholas Waller, Craig Wanless and Paul O’Neil , and production labourer Scott McKittrick.

In addition, Mark Kasper, previously a load inspector with the company, has been promoted to work alongside John Gibson as Production Supervisor.

Most of the new employees at UKWR have been recruited with the help of Redcar and Cleveland Council’s Routes to Employment Team, based at the South Tees Skills Centre in Grangetown.

Vicki Hughes, Strategic Director of UK Wood Recycling (UKWR), said: “We launched UKWR last summer and have been collecting wood for recycling on site ever since.”

“We are fortunate to have secured Lord Truscott to visit the site and declare us officially open at the end of March and we are very grateful to him for that. The team here is growing as we get closer to the opening but we still have some vacancies in the pipeline which we hope to fill later in the year.”

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.

As well as producing wood chip for the boiler, UKWR will also produce a range of recycled products including horse, cattle and poultry bedding.

When operational, Wilton 10 will require around 300,000 tonnes of wood as its fuel every year. Around 40 per cent of this will be recycled wood, with the remaining 60 per cent being sourced in equal proportions from forestry management schemes in the north, sawmills and specially grown ‘energy crops’ in the form of short rotation coppice grown throughout the region.

ENDS

For further information contact Gayle Green on 07766 701479 or email gayle@mcpheeassociates.co.uk