UK prime minister voices support for recycling effort

Sheehan Contractors’ recycling plant supplied by CDE Global to the former’s ‘Dix Pit’ site was visited by UK prime minister David Cameron on January 4. Commenting on his visit, he said: “I was delighted to visit Sheehan’s construction and demolition waste recycling plant in my constituency on Friday 4^th January 2013. The project is something that I whole heartedly support, not only will it make a positive difference to our environment but I hope that it will also help to inspire and encourage more businesses in the industry to get involved in similar projects and to really make a positive difference to our recycling practice here in the UK.”

The new recycling plant is located in the Dix Pit Industrial complex on the outskirts of Oxford, UK, and represents a multi-million pound investment by Sheehan Contractors as the company expands its recycling operations. In the UK 20% of total aggregates production is currently from recycled sources representing approximately 40 million tonnes. Under the revised Waste Framework Directive EU Member States are required to recover a minimum of 70% of construction and demolition waste by 2020 and 2013 is the first year that progress towards this target will be measured.

Commenting on this initiative Tara Sheehan, financial controller with Sheehan Contractors said “The new targets outlined in the revised Waste Framework Directive focus the mind on existing recycling practice in the UK. While our performance as an industry to date is commendable we need to move on to the next level in terms of how we view this waste stream and maximise recovery. It is only through the deployment of advanced processing systems such as the one we invested in that we will be able to make real progress and increase awareness about the high value recycled products that can be produced.”