MP opens £3 million wood recycling plant in North Lanarkshire
A new £3 million wood recycling facility, which is the most advanced of its kind in Scotland, has been officially opened in Bellshill.
- (1888PressRelease) November 30, 2011 - The Egger Timberpak site on Bellshill Industrial Estate will process pallets, old furniture and other waste wood - which would otherwise go to landfill - from local authorities, waste-management companies, factories, skip-hire firms and builders.
Recycled wood chips will then go to sister company Egger UK's chipboard factory in Barony that is one of Ayrshire's largest manufacturing employers and supplies furniture manufacturers, shopfitters and the construction industry across the UK.
Recycled wood makes up over 40% of the raw material used in Egger's chipboard manufacturing - and as well as reducing the amount of waste wood simply thrown away, it also helps them to secure an alternative supply of raw materials in the face of rising prices and wood shortages.
The official opening by Coatbridge Chryston and Bellshill MP Tom Clarke was attended by the seven employees who have been given jobs by Timberpak. The enclosed site will have Scottish Environment Protection Agency accreditation.
Timberpak operations director Mark Hayton said: "This is an important day for us and finally realises our ambition to have a site in Scotland which complements our operations in Yorkshire and North East England.
"Wood is too precious a natural resource just to be put in a large hole in the ground. By recycling it here in Bellshill, and then supplying it to Egger in Barony to be made into products with a secondary lifespan of ten, 20 or more years is not just environmentally- friendly but common sense.
"It enables companies to reduce the amount of waste on which they have to pay landfill taxes and helps local authorities and waste management companies to meet their recycling targets.
"Another benefit to Egger's chipboard manufacturing operation is that it provides them with an alternative raw material to virgin wood - which is in increasingly short supply thanks to Government policies that are encouraging electricity generators to burn wood in biomass power stations."
Tom Clarke MP added: "I welcome such commercial developments at a time when we are all working so hard to increase recycling rates, reduce the amount of domestic and commercial waste going to landfill and make better use of wood.
"Scotland's forests are one of our most precious natural resources and while the political debate over burning wood for electricity generation continues, it is good to see a major player like Egger Timberpak investing to both create these new jobs and ensure the long-term future of their Barony factory."
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