Biffa to Close Trafford Park MRF

The waste management and recycling firm Biffa Waste, headquartered in the United Kingdom, has announced plans to close its Trafford Park, U.K., MRF by the middle of June, 2013. The facility was opened in 2010 and processed plastics, aluminum, steel, paper and cardboard from commercial and industrial sources and some household collections. In announcing plans to close the facility, Biffa says a key reason was its inability to obtain enough feedstock to make the MRF financial viable.

In announcing the closure, Biffa notes that a decline in the generation of material caused by the recession, as well as competition for the recyclables from Viridor and UPM, also posed problems for the facility.

In a release, Biffa adds that its plastics recycling plant in Redcar, U.K., also has faced challenges due to a decline in feedstock. The mixed plastics line was closed in January, 2013, but is due to re-open later in the year, after Biffa said it “found a suitable feedstock which makes the plant a viable operation.”

The Redcar plant opened in 2008 to recycle HDPE. The mixed plastics line was opened in 2011, making it the first of its kind in the U.K. at the time. But the quality of the plant’s feedstock—which included high levels of waste material—made the process commercially unviable. The company is planning on investing around £500,000 to upgrade the equipment at the plastics recycling facility.

The company adds that the company will undertake substantial investment in new equipment over the summer to allow the Redcar plant to operate at full capacity by the third quarter of the year.