Irish Firm Opens New Automated MRF

Greenstar, based in Dublin, Ireland, has opened a new automated materials recycling facility in the Dublin, Ireland area. The new MRF, costing around $32 million, is licensed to take in 220,000 metric tons of commercial and industrial waste and construction and demolition material. It is expected that the facility will be able to recycle around 70 percent of the C&I material and 85 percent of the C&D waste.

"The opening of Millennium Park will significantly increase the volume of commercial waste that can be diverted from landfill in the Dublin region. As well as helping the region meet the recycling targets set out under the Dublin Waste Management Plan (2005), Millennium Park is also an important infrastructural asset and a response to the Plan's call for investment by the private sector in material recycling facilities," said Steve Cowman, chief executive of Greenstar. "However, though Millennium Park is a major step forward, it is also just a small part of the overall solution needed to solve Ireland's over reliance on landfill. If we are to develop comprehensive capacity to treat different waste types appropriately and environmentally, it is essential more facilities exist to provide integrated waste management solutions throughout Ireland."

The company also announced the acquisitions of two Irish-based firms: South-East-based Ormonde Waste, and 100 percent of the share capital of Cork-based Glyntown Enterprises, trading as Hannon Recycling, in two transactions totaling Eur20 million. The deals bring the number of acquisitions by Greenstar to eleven since 1999.

The acquisitions are the first since Greenstar's announcement in February this year that it had secured debt refinancing of Eur200 million that would be used to extend its national footprint in the commercial, industrial and domestic waste channels though acquisition and investment in critical infrastructure.