Plaudits for business as it struggles to fulfil early recycling hopes

According to the firm, its patented process results in the removal of cans, plastics, wood, aggregates and glass leaving behind an “organic biomass fibre” which is clean and has “many possible uses”.

Some of this involve burning the fibre as a “biofuel” to create energy or heat, or passing it through an anaerobic digester which produces a “biogas” which can then be burned for similar purposes.

Bosses also say it can be used for paper pulp recovery that can be sold to the paper industry as a high quality paper/card pulp or for the manufacture of construction products.

The company’s chief executive Tom Shields said he was confident all of these applications could be achieved but said progress had been held back because of a lack of licences and permits.

At present the plant is running at its full capacity, dealing with 100,000 tonnes of waste a year under a contract with Doncaster, Barnsley and Rotherham councils to deal with residual waste.

Mr Shields said he hoped that as more licences were granted, problems with the Doncaster site would recede, but added he was confident that planning permission for the storage operation would be eventually be granted by planners.

Sterecycle currently has 55 full time employees and with further recycling plants will employ over 300 staff in 2013. It said it planned to have at least six plants operational in Britain by 2013.

The company was at the centre of controversy early this year, when one of its employees was killed and another was seriously injured in a blast caused by a decompression in the firm’s autoclave machinery which treats waste from councils with steam and pressure to produce Sterefibre.

The blast, which left a large hole in the wall of the building, meant that the plant had to close for around three months.

The machinery involved was modified by the firm to ensure it did not fail again.