Parley recycling firm invests in 'ultra-green' technology

A RECYCLING firm says a new half-a-million pound electric wood shredder has catapulted it into the “ultra-green” league.

Parley-based Eco Sustainable Solutions takes wood from household recycling centres across Dorset and Hampshire and shreds it for biomass fuel.

The fuel is used for Eco’s on-site combined and heat plant (CHP), as well as a separate bio-mass burner in South Wales.

Operations director Justin Dampney said the shredder had the benefit of being self-powered with electricity from Eco’s CHP.

“Our operations are already environmentally friendly but this takes us into the ‘ultra green’ league,” he said.

“We’re effectively closing the renewable loop by turning waste into fuel to generate electricity which is partly used to power the shredder to process the waste. We’ve also stopped sending wood fuel for export to Sweden, reducing our carbon footprint, so it’s a win-win.

Mr Dampney continued: “This is traditionally an energy-hungry sector, with noisy, high wear and high maintenance equipment.

“The electric shredder avoids using diesel operated, and hence energy-guzzling and noisy, machines which can be harmful to the environment.”

The Untha XR3000 mobile-e shredder has a crawler-type undercarriage, allowing it to be easily moved to any spot using remote control.

It can handle up to 65,000 tonnes of waste wood annually, and shreds at a rate of 25 tonnes per hour.

Founded in 1994, the business currently handles 340,000 tonnes of organic material each year across four facilities, including its highly successful anaerobic digestion (AD) plant at Piddlehinton near Dorchester.

At its Parley site, it annually processes 250,000 tonnes of material, with end products including enriched topsoil, compost and woodchip.

Eco has held the contract with Dorset Waste Partnership to handle the county’s food, wood and green waste since 2008.