North East recycling company Scott Bros has announced plans to invest more than £4m in the country’s largest ‘urban quarry’.
The recycling business, which marks 50 years of trading next year, said the investment will allow it to convert more construction and excavation waste into sustainably-produced sand and aggregate.
Its current wash plant handles up to 50 tons of inert material per hour, while the new plant will be capable of processing a further 200 tons per hour at the new site in South Bank, Middlesbrough.
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The development is expected to create at least seven jobs and secures the future of a further 54 of its 120-strong workforce.
The Stockton-based family firm secured grant funding of almost £710,000 from Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) with the support of Stockton-based chartered accountants and business advisors, Anderson Barrowcliff.
The additional funding allowed it to upgrade its plans and invest in developing what will be England’s largest wash plant, to produce high-quality course and fine sand, as well as five different grades of aggregate. It is hoped that it will be fully operational by July next year.
Work has started to prepare the ground and, as part of its plans, Scott Bros will restore the site by removing and recycling decades worth of demolished concrete, rubble and metalwork left over from previous industry.
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The firm has already created five new jobs and extended the operating hours at its original £1m wash plant, at Norton Bottoms, near Stockton, following an increase in home improvement and commercial construction projects.
Peter Scott, a director of Scott Bros, said: “We are experiencing huge demand for our recycled sand and aggregate. Normally we can build up a stockpile, but it is being loaded onto the trucks and going straight out to customers as quickly as we can process it.”
Fellow director Bob Borthwick added: “We have tripled our original investment to ensure Scott Bros is able to reuse and recycle as much material as possible by designing out waste and creating sustainable solutions.”
Redcar MP Jacob Young, who visited the site, said: “Teesside is on track to becoming the very centre of the Green Industrial Revolution seeing new, green technologies coming to our region.
“It’s all part of creating a circular economy here on Teesside, using soil washing facilities like this to convert construction and excavation waste into high quality commercial grade sand and aggregate which can then go on to be used in industry.”
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