Northern Ireland Waste Management Company Wins Pioneering Woodchip Export Deal

Nutts Corner, Northern Ireland based waste management company McKinstry Skip Hire has won an export deal, in conjunction with Gloucestershire based Boomeco Limited, to supply recycled woodchip to Sweden.

The first shipment will see nearly 2500 tonnes of processed recycled wood, sourced mainly from McKinstry’s ever expanding construction sector client base, loaded onto a Boomeco freighter atBelfast harbour to be shipped to a StoraEnso paper mill inSweden.

The exported processed wood will be utilised in the StoraEnso production process to produce heat and energy for the paper mill, with any excess heat and energy being supplied to the local community in the vicinity of the mill.

This is the first recycled wood waste product of its kind to be exported fromNorthern Irelandand places McKinstry’s very much at the top of the market in the waste management sector, demonstrating innovative solutions to local waste needs.

Darren McKinstry, Managing Director of McKinstry Skip Hire said, “I am delighted that we have been able to bring together this deal to see us export our recycled wood product in conjunction with our partner, Boomeco to the StoraEnso plant in Sweden. This is a very exciting time for us as we strive to broaden our waste management business and being able to export this product allows us to further develop our commitment to becoming a zero waste to landfill company”.

Mr McKinstry went further to say, “As a signatory to WRAP’s “Halving Waste to Landfill” Scheme, we hope to increase our recycling rate to over 95% and this deal allows us to quickly achieve that.”

Oliver Latter, owner of Boomeco said, “Boomeco is delighted to have achieved another ‘first’. We dispatched the initial recovered wood shipment out of England in 2007. Customer satisfaction is of preeminent importance to us and we always aim to achieve this, a quality that StoraEnso recognise”.
Speaking at the dockside, William McCrea MP said: “This is an export opportunity that Northern Ireland welcomes. I very much welcome the dynamic, innovative and pioneering approach that McKinstry’s brings to their waste management operation and also, the environmentally-friendly approach that they have adopted in sourcing and disposing through export, of their recycled wood product. I am really encouraged to see McKinstry’s winning this export deal as it shows how, with a little creative thinking, our recycled waste can be diverted from landfill and turned into a valuable product that brings a much needed boost to the local and wider Northern Ireland economy at a difficult time”.
The Northern Ireland Waste Resource Action Plan (WRAP) vision is to see a world without waste, where resources are used sustainably.Recycling businesses helped by WRAP Northern Ireland have generated additional turnover of £8.8 million and diverted 108,000 tonnes of waste from landfill since 2006.