Including time lapse
Minutes:
Richard Dobbs (Corporate Director – Streetscape, NWBC & Managing Director – Sherbourne Recycling) presented a PowerPoint and summarised that:
· Construction had progressed well and the building itself had taken shape
· The fire suppression water tanks were installed, they store 2 million litres of water
· Most of the outside work had finished so they were finalising the work on the inside
· A drone shot was used showing the surrounding HWRC and waste to energy plant. The footage followed the route at the MRF that the recycling will follow
· There were solar panels on the roof
· The dust and air suppression pipes had been installed
· The machinery was being installed and they had a good relationship with the supplier. Everything was shipped from Canada and installed on site
· An electricity wire from the Energy from Waste facility to the MRF was in place
· A drone shot was used showing the sorting cabin (the only area where there was manual labour – 5 x people), trommel 1 and 2 that organised waste into sizes, sampling bays, the sorting processing equipment for card and metal fractions and the plastic film removal system
· Richard Dobbs had been appointed as the Managing Director of Sherbourne Recycling; the other roles would be appointed in early 2023
· The plan is to start accepting waste - summer 2023
· The company is preparing to finalise insurance, this links with fire suppression systems
· Operational permits and procedures were being finalised to make sure that the company was ready to go from day one. These include financial and operating systems.
In response to Councillor Bill Flemming, Richard Dobbs agreed to send the slides out but notes that the drone shots themselves were 1GB each so they would be difficult to send out via email. The drone footage would be uploaded onto the Sherbourne Recycling’s website at https://www.sherbournerecycling.co.uk/ .
In response to Councillor Katheryn Lawrence relating to management of fire and explosive risks, Richard Dobbs said that they were carrying out fire risk assessments as part of the comprehensive fire risk strategy. Additional work was taking place on explosive risks, fire risks, dust suppression and air handling. Sparks and ignition risk would not be allowed in key areas to manage risk. Dust suppression and extraction would be very important. The robotics in the MRF would be trained to watch out for ignition risks e.g., lithium batteries, pressurised items. This would be linked to the MRF’s health and safety systems, and if it saw any danger, it would shut the plant down until the danger was removed. There was fire suppression throughout the building as well as sprinklers and water cannons. There were shutters so different parts of the building could be compartmentalised quickly and the conveyers were set up so they could be isolated and stopped if things were on there that should not be. A specialist advisor visited monthly to advise on improvements. They were now speaking to their main operating insurers, and they will fully audit what activities take place on site, in addition there will be training plans and certification for licensed workers. A permit would also be sought from the Environment Agency (EA) so they could operate; they were in the final process of this application.
Following a supplementary query from Councillor Lawrence, Richard Dobbs agreed to confirm who was being used for the work.
Andrew Pau congratulated Richard Dobbs on his new role and for the number of solar panels on the building.
In response to a question from Andrew Pau regarding the plastic film extraction equipment, Richard Dobbs stated that the kit will work and there would be rigorous testing regime to ensure that the MRF can recycle film effectively. The recycling collected by the collection authorities would not initially have a lot of film in it so the MRF would need a way to test it with the collection authorities possibly through a pilot so they could see what needed amending.
In response to Anton Cuscito (Transport & Waste Manager, RBC) on the type of water used in the fire suppression system, Richard Dobbs said that the EA permit is very strict on what they would be allowed to do on site regarding water collection and in addition the tanks need to be permanently full in case there is a fire.
Following a question from Glen McGrandle (Head of Waste and Transport, NBBC) regarding the end markets for plastic film, Richard Dobbs stated, the MRF had contracts ready to be signed by offtakers. There were some emerging markets as well. There is not a lot of value currently in film and it is more likely this would be cost neutral.