Sims Group is expanding the size and capacity of its Manchester facility, in anticipation of the introduction of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive in July. The expansion will increase the amount of WEEE handled by over 50 per cent.
The improvement of the site will now give Sims large-scale recycling capabilities in both the north and the south of the country, reducing logistics costs and impact on the environment.
The development will see Sims-owned land being converted into an unloading area and turning circle for trucks dropping off and collecting material, increasing the footprint to 10,000 square metres. With greater access to and from the facility, the improvement will enable Sims to receive more WEEE waste and increase the capacity of material handled by the plant.
Further plans to relocate the pre-shredder closer to the main processing line and to move the pre-sorting process undercover are also being considered as the WEEE Directive deadline looms.
"We only switched to the Stalybridge operation in December 2005 after outgrowing capacity at our other Manchester operation in Ashton-under-Lyne," said Tony Howe, Regional Manager. "The fact we are expanding the site less than two years later shows that the demand for recycling and recovery as well as the growing levels of WEEE that is out there.
"Once the new regulations are in place and compliance schemes are operational, then we are expecting the levels of waste we handle to increase dramatically. This is why the expansion of the site as well as at Sims' other sites in the UK is so important."
News of the expansion comes after Sims announced earlier this year an eight million pound investment in its Newport facility to construct a 12 acre, purpose-built WEEE facility capable of handling 100,000 tonnes of WEEE per year. This new facility will make Newport the world's premier recycling facility.
Already the biggest recycling company in the world, the expansion, and the addition of the Newport WEEE facility will take its European electronics recycling capacity to over 451,000 tonnes annually. This will be increased further through the growing capacities of operations in Australia and the United States.
Sims Recycling Solutions is a division of Sims Group, the world's leading recycler of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, as well as plastics and glass, operating from over 120 sites worldwide and recycling nine million tonnes of metal each year.
Sims Recycling Solutions is investing in technology across Europe and North America to recover and market hitherto landfilled waste streams. Sims is committed to becoming the market leader in innovative recovery and recycling of consumer goods capable of processing up to 450,000 tonnes of electronic scrap and difficult to recover materials.
Sims Group is a public limited company, listed on the Australian stock exchange, which seeks to meet and better legislation ahead of its implementation. Its range of services in Europe covers End of Life Vehicles, Abandoned Vehicles, End of Life Tyres Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Recycling and End of Life Fridge Recycling.