200 jobs for waste firm
Kidderminster is set to get the country's largest materials recycling centre which is expected to cost £5 million and create up to 200 jobs.
Local firm Lawrence Skip Hire, who will own and operate the 16 acre site, hope the recycling centre planned for the Stourport Road will officially open next Spring.
The scheme was given the go-ahead by members of Worcestershire County Council. It will see the huge existing buildings of the former Folkes heavy industrial forge also brought back into use.
These are to be renovated to process up to 250,000 tonnes of waste material each year. Initially company officials say about 100 jobs will be created and that the centre will help the Wyre Forest and Worcestershire meet recycling and landfill targets.
Jobs will include sales, driving, machine operators and administration roles and it is envisaged that the numbers of jobs created would be doubled by 2012.
The facility will include a viewing platform for visiting parties, including schoolchildren, who will be able to see how materials are recycled. Director David Lawrence said: "At our existing Hoobrook Industrial Estate site we already recycle 80 per cent of the waste we collect in our skips.
"At Stourport Road we will be able to expand our capacity dramatically and increase the proportion recycled. We aim to top 90 per cent."
"Being able to sort all waste before it is sent to landfill will be a Department of Food and Rural Affairs requirement from October 30 this year.
"After that date, non-hazardous waste must be treated to satisfy a three point test, the primary objective of which is to minimise the use of landfill."
Mr Lawrence has estimated that the new facility will recycle approximately 950 tonnes-a-day, producing usable rubble, soils, metals, wood chippings and plastics.
Conservative leader David Cameron, pictured on a recent visit to the company, praised its vision saying that it "looked very impressive".
