Palm Recycling has marked the first year anniversary of its Coventry-based materials sorting facility, which was commissioned at the end of 2011. Since the opening of the facility, new sorting lines have been added to it to increase its capacity.

Opened originally to take material from three kerbside schemes, the plant now processes a wider range of material from more local authority and pressroom customers. A fibre sorting line, which separates cardboard from newspapers, and a cardboard baler were installed at the site shortly after it was opened. In July 2012 a container sorting line was commissioned, enabling the facility to separate glass, plastic, steel and aluminium cans. Changes were also made to the fibre sorting line to allow it to process more material.

Since then, the company has gained more contracts to process containers, and to meet these it added a new metering conveyer and baler to the container sorting line, as well as to the cardboard line.

Ben Saunders, Palm Recycling’s Operations Director, commented: “The development of this facility has been a great success and is well ahead of schedule. Continued investment is ensuring capacity is not only increasing but at the same time so is the facility’s efficiency and flexibility, which are demanded by all of our local authority and pressroom contracts.”

The site, described by Palm Recycling as a ‘Centre of Excellence’, was initially set up to receive material from three kerbside schemes run by Palm Recycling in the Borough Councils of Hinckley and Bosworth, North Warwickshire and Nuneaton and Bedworth. It now collects material from a wider area, and has depots in Petersfield, South Derbyshire and Malton. As well as local authority contracts, the company has an in-feed of recovered fibre from a number of pressroom customers.