Keeping one step ahead in recycling, Onyx Hampshire has updated the equipment in its Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in Portsmouth with investment totalling close to £750,000.

New screening equipment has arrived from the United States, with one screen of such a size that it is the largest paper screen ever made by the manufacturers, BHS. Too wide to travel by train across the USA from the factory in Oregon, it was instead shipped via the Panama Canal from the west to the east coast.

The make-over is designed to lift the quality of the recyclable materials that the MRF handles and sells on, from newspapers and magazines, to cardboard, plastic bottles and cans.

Says Onyx Hampshire Operations Manager, Mike Thomas; "When the MRF was built back in 1997, it was one of the largest and most modern in the country. It initially handled some 42,000 tonnes of materials a year and this has recently increased, helping Hampshire to achieve its 22% recycling levels, nearly three times the national average.

"Now our aim is to improve the quality of the materials that we sort, meeting the higher quality demands of the paper mills and achieving bigger tonnages, thereby securing our marketplace."

The custom built production line will now incorporate five screens, all tailormade to Onyx Hampshire's own specification.

At the front a fine screen will take out any dust and grit. Then follows the large, 8' wide, 20' long paper screen with its 400 plus rotating triangular shaped rubber discs, which open out the papers into single sheets. Their large surface area and lightness allow them to be sorted - by size and weight - away from the other papers.

At the third stage is a new polisher screen - again the only one in this country - which helps to sort the cans and plastic bottles, particularly those that have been flattened by the householders. This evolving practice of flattening the recyclables in order to get more in their containers has been causing problems with the original equipment not designed to cope with it.

Then follow two smaller screens, helping to regain a higher quality material from the remaining lower grade paper and card.

The two week programme of works to complete the transformation are planned from the April bank holiday, when the staff on site will be given additional training and leave. The materials collected over this period will be stored ready for sorting once the new look MRF is up and running again.

Ends

7 April 2001

For further information contact: John Collis, Onyx Hampshire, Tel: (01962) 764000

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