New £3 million waste transfer station

A new £3 million waste transfer station has officially been opened on the outskirts of York.

The station has been built by Yorwaste at its Harwood Whin facility. It will handle 75,000 tones of waste each year that comes from households in the City of York and Selby District Council areas, as well as Yorwaste’s commercial customers in North Yorkshire.

Waste will be sorted by Yorwaste before being taken to the new Allerton Waste Recovery Park (AWRP), where it will be recovered into renewable energy.

The Lord Mayor of York officially opened the waste transfer station, pressing a button which opened the doors to the station to enable the first waste collection vehicle to deposit waste there.

Steve Barker, managing director of Yorwaste, said: “With the opening of Allerton Waste Recovery Park, it was essential to have a facility nearby where waste can be sorted and bulked before it goes for final disposal and recovery.

“We are therefore delighted that the waste transfer station, which is the best of its kind in the country, has opened on schedule, just as Allerton Park becomes fully operational.

“It means our local authority and commercial customers will have access to a state-of-the-art facility which, because of its location, will provide greater value for money and help them meet their environmental responsibilities through landfill diversion and more recycling and recovery of waste.”

Kevin Byrne, managing director of Seymour Civil Engineering, one of the architects of the station, said: “The project had several constraints, including time and working alongside an operational facility, but it has been very successful and we look forward to the opportunity to work together with Yorwaste again in the future.”

Barbara Boyce, the Lord Mayor of York, said: “I have followed the building of this facility with interest and it’s fantastic to be part of something which will help to recycle and recover even more of York’s waste.”