A recycling plant on the outskirts of Norwich is to undergo an £8m expansion to bolster the amount of waste it can process.

Eastern Daily Press: £8m development at the Norse waste management site at Costessey. Photo: Bill Smith£8m development at the Norse waste management site at Costessey. Photo: Bill Smith (Image: Archant © 2014)

Norse Commercial Services is carrying out a major redevelopment of its site at Costessey, which aims to save council's money by dealing with more rubbish and diverting waste away from landfill sites.

Once finished the plant will increase the amount of waste it recycles from 80,000 tonnes to 125,000 tonnes per year.

The extension will mean householders will be able to recycle glass and other types of plastic such as pots, trays and tubs.

It comes just days after the services provider's Devon subsidiary strengthened its partnership with Devon County Council by taking over cleaning and facilities management of the council's civic buildings in a deal worth £5.3m a year.

Dave Newell, Norse operations director at the plant, which employs 100 people, said: 'The expansion will save Norfolk's councils considerable amounts of revenue as we will be able to handle much more waste and avoid unnecessary landfill.

'In addition there will be significant environmental benefits in that it will enable us to process waste quicker, and handle new waste streams in the future.'

Plans were lodged with the county council in August last year to provide a further 3,100m sq of covered building space at the plant, which is on the Longwater estate at Costessey.

Building work is expected to be finished by the end of July, before technology equipment and machinery is installed during August and September this year.

Colleen Walker, Norse board member for Norfolk County Council, said: 'This is one of a number of exciting new developments and important contract wins for Norse which have secured further growth for the company and allow it to continue to bring important benefits to Norfolk.

'This investment is also important because it will provide more capacity in our growing county for more recycling.

'That could help us send less waste to landfill and keep the lid on waste disposal costs for Norfolk's hard pressed council taxpayers.

'That's particularly welcome now, just as the government's landfill tax is set to increase to record levels - £80 a tonne – from 1 April.

'And unless we recycle more, Norfolk's landfill bill could go up from around an already eye-watering £20m by more than £2m a year as the costs of disposal and landfill tax both go up.'

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