H W Martin Waste Ltd. was celebrating again with the award of another kerbside materials recycling contract in December, this time for Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council.
In February 2019 the company began the contract to deliver processing and recycling for Rotherham’s kerbside collections of mixed recyclable materials. As part of a new council service that will see it collecting a mix of glass, metals and plastics, H W Martin will receive the materials – in excess of 14,000 tonnes per year – at a delivery point in the borough and transport it in bulk for processing at its materials recovery facilities (MRFs).
Yet again it was the company’s specialist capability in glass and plastics separation that was a key factor in the council choosing to use us, coupled with our experience in the separation of the whole range of recyclable materials and the ability to deliver all of that at a competitive price. The demand for low-cost, high quality services is as great at Rotherham as it is at councils up and down the country, all of which are under increasing pressure to reduce public spending while maintaining services.
Using H W Martin Waste Ltd means Rotherham Council has been able to add plastics to the mix of recyclable materials that its residents can leave at the kerbside. Until now kerbside collection of plastics was not available and our technology has enabled Rotherham to make that positive change.
Andrew Horner at Rotherham Borough Council said of the new contract, “Rotherham residents are enthusiastic about having the ability to recycle plastics at kerbside as part of the new contract, and Rotherham Council are looking forward to building a great working relationship with H W Martin in the future.”
H W Martin’s solution produces good quality recyclable commodities that are sold into the recyclables market. The residents of Rotherham are assured that not only do their materials get recycled, but also the value of that material is ploughed back into the borough.
H W Martin has been running materials recovery facilities for many years and opened its own facility in 2007. Since then the company has opened more facilities and researched, invested and specialised in adding new methods and techniques for the separation of more and more recyclable materials.
The company has developed a unique glass separation plant, which creates smelt-ready cullet for the glass industry where new glass bottles are manufactured. We have also developed an innovative plastics separation plant that takes the plastics removed from the rest of the recyclable materials mix and further separates it into polymer types. Outputs include plastic drinks bottles going straight back into the manufacture of new bottles, and flaked polymer that goes straight to a manufacturer to make plastic products. Our processing of glass and plastic bottles achieves “closed-loop recycling”, helping all of our council customers in their drive towards a circular economy.
Dec Nortcliffe, National Recycling Manager at H W Martin Waste Ltd., commented on the Rotherham contract, “It is very encouraging to see another council recognise the operational and cost benefits of our process by choosing us to handle their recyclable materials. I am not just speaking for H W Martin, I am also speaking as a resident of Rotherham!”