SUEZ site-seeing | Part 7 | Clifton Marsh Wood Recycling Site
Following on from my Midlands bound site tours last month, I have been fortunate enough to be able to coincide in the activities associated with my ‘day job’ like conferences, client meetings and development workshops with visits to a number of SUEZ facilities. The sites showcasing even more of the breadth of our services and facilities, from our rail transfer stations and wood recycling plants in the North West, to energy recovery and materials processing in the North East, and our state-of-the-art energy-from-waste facility in Suffolk.
In this blog, I will share a few of my highlights from getting out and about more in the regions, seeing first-hand how our different sites operate, how our teams work, and how the changing market is impacting local operations.
Clifton Marsh Wood Recycling Site (Lancashire)
This site is part of an old landfill site which is rented from a local farmer, the one square mile area is pretty deep, around 100ft or more. The landfill site is still operational, taking in difficult wastes like asbestos, clinical and low level radioactive wastes from the local area.
The location was originally a compost site, however it has been redeveloped into a wood recycling and recovery facility, mainly producing a biomass fuel from wood chip. Each year, the site manages 600,000 tonnes of mixed low-grade wood, such as MDF. Quality and consistency of the product is crucial as this site provides a client with 4,500 tonnes every month, which, along with similar SUEZ sites around the UK accounts for approximately 75% of their biomass feedstock in the UK.
When the mixed wood arrives on site it is shredded twice to produce an 80mm mix. The shredded material is then screened to remove any metals and oversized items. Metals are extracted using an over-band magnet and the fines are then blended with the main biomass product prior to bulking and shipping off site.
Clifton Marsh has just four staff members that work regular day shifts, Monday to Friday, so the team based there is very busy.