A waste processing plant looks set to be granted permission to recycling plastics 24-hours a day on weekdays.
AdvertisementThe Rough Hey Road processing plant at Red Scar, Grimsargh is currently restricted until 10pm on weeknights and until 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
Plans submitted to Lancashire County Council outline how the Valpack Recycling plant is running at a loss at needs to the extended operating hours to secure its long-term future.
New operating hours would see it also operate until 10pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
Initially the Environment Agency was not in support of the application due to noise concerns for nearby residents.
However, they have now decided they have seen enough detail of how noise at the site will be contained.
Grimsargh Parish Council have not objected to the plans, only stating it must be restricted to only recycling of plastics.
Valpack state: “The new plant would pass the plastics across a light stream and compressed air would then be used to sort in the bottles into different plastic types.
“The new plant would allow approximately 14 tonnes of plastics to be sorted per hour.
“Sorted plastics would then be bailed and exported from the site for recycling elsewhere to produce high quality raw materials.
“The applicant states that the plastic materials have low margins which are sensitive to volatile price fluctuations and therefore higher volumes of plastic need to be processed necessitating longer working hours.”
Lancashire County Council’s development control committee has been recommended to approve the plans.
They will state the 24-hours can go ahead, apart from between 10pm on Friday to 6am on Saturday, 10pm on Saturday to 6am on Sunday and 10pm on Sunday to 6am on Monday.
A number of residents living nearby have objected to the change in operating hours.
They state the existing plant has a load whirring noise and the 24 hour operation would give rise to noise disturbance.
The county council is due to meet on Wednesday 2 September from 2pm to consider the application. The full plans can be read on the county council website.
Do you live nearby? What do you think of the Valpack plans? Let us know in the comments below