A WOOD recycling firm from the North West of England has expanded into the south with the opening of a £1 million site at Tilbury Docks.

Hadfield Wood Recyclers, which is based in Manchester, opened the two acre site this week.

The facility will be used for collecting and pre-processing waste wood from all over the south of England.

Managing Director of Hadfield Wood Recyclers, Geoff Hadfield, said: “This is a very exciting project for us because there is a huge demand in the area for a wood recycler who can take all grades of wood and recycle it into sustainable and environmentally-friendly products.

“This is just the start of our presence in the area.

“Ultimately we will be looking to build a full processing plant to cover the south east, so we can process and clean the wood, and manufacture our products, as we already do at our sites in Manchester and Teesside.”

Hadfield Wood Recyclers takes all grades of non-hazardous waste wood including MDF, chipboard, plywood and melamine, and recycles it into a number of different products including equine, poultry and cattle bedding, equestrian surfaces, panelboard and biomass wood chip for fuel.

The new site will be able to handle 100,000 tonnes of waste wood a year and will offer a tip-in facility, accepting skips, walking floor trailers, containers and waste management vehicles as well as smaller loads.

Tilbury was specifically chosen for the new site because of its direct access to the docks and because it is convenient for the London area.

Mr Hadfield added: “We have been getting increasing requests to take waste wood from the London and south east area.

“Like a lot of companies nowadays we are very conscious of our carbon footprint so looking to the future we wanted a site which can utilise alternatives to road, such as water and rail transportation. Therefore Tilbury was an ideal location.”