Bigger plan for forthcoming Materials Recycling Facility
Currently Coventry City Council sends all recyclable materials – glass, plastic, metal and paper – to commercial firms in the city. In 2018/19 it cost the Council over £1.6m.
The Council first discussed plans for the Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) over two years ago, in partnership with six other local authorities in the region.
Approval of the planning application was granted in January 2021. The MRF will be operated by Sherbourne Recycling Limited; the wholly-owned Local Authority company being established to manage the facility.
The original design design utilised 14 sorting robots and 14 optical sorters, within an overall solution to provide, what is certainly a highly automated and innovative state-of-the-art facility. This would make it the most advanced of its kind within the UK and potentially one of the most advanced MRFs around the world.
It is due to be operational in 2023.
Now two new councils have now joined the plans, and with improvements in technology over the past two years, a superior site could now be built with added investment.
Councillors will hear the new centre will save around £1.4m a year and will provide an opportunity to bring in revenue in future years.
In upgrading the plans, the Council will be able to build a bigger, fully automated plant that will produce purer materials, suitable for the ever-evolving market in recycled goods, processing around 175,000 tonnes of waste every year.