Kier Group's new Pure Recycling materials recycling facility (MRF) in Ettington, Warwickshire, has taken delivery of five new plant machines as recycling processing began ahead of schedule. Local authorities started delivering raw recyclable materials to the MRF at the end of February.

The new equipment, supplied by Kier Plant on a three-year contract hire basis, is vital to ensuring the MRF runs smoothly and safely. After a process of test and evaluation undertaken by experts at Pure and Kier Plant, three JCB TLT35D Teletruks and two JCB 436 Wastemaster loading shovels were selected.

The 35D Teletruk is a four-wheel drive forklift with a unique telescopic boom. Its reach and manoeuvrability will prove invaluable in unloading, sorting and distributing bales of processed materials beneath and around the complex of conveyer belts, chutes and cabins that fill the MRF. The two 436 Wastemasters have been designed and specified precisely for use in the MRF, with particular buckets for shovelling each type of material; they’ll be feeding the raw materials into the appropriate processing equipment.

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Between them the new machines have already shifted hundreds of tonnes of material in just a few days, with the MRF capable of processing 25 tonnes an hour. With recycling equipment installation completed in February, at 60,000sq ft the MRF is one of the largest in the UK, licensed to process 150,000 tonnes of mixed dry recyclable materials a year.

The acquisition of Pure was a huge boost for Kier Street Services, the Group's environmental services arm, and already paper, magazines, cardboard, glass, mixed plastic bottles, and aluminium and steel cans are being processed through Pure Recycling contracts with Stratford-on-Avon District Council, Rugby Borough Council, Tewkesbury Borough Council and Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, which starts in April 2011.

Kier Street Services has also just been awarded the waste collection and disposal contract for East Northamptonshire Council, worth £18.5m over seven years, with a possible seven-year extension.

(CD/GK)