Frome Recycling Centre is undergoing a much-needed revamp this month, including five days closure for building work.
Run by contractor Viridor for Somerset Waste Partnership, the recycling centre on Frome’s Marston Trading Estate will see maintenance and improvements so it is easier for visitors to use and can handle more materials.
Latest figures show it is one of the busier centres in Somerset, with its five staff handling 129,059 visits a year producing 6,667 tonnes of recycling and rubbish, but a lower than average recycling rate at almost 67%, in part due to the difficulties of waste sorting on a small site.
The new works have begun, with the site closed for five days Monday-Friday 21st to 25th March, reopening Saturday 26th March. Details about the closure are on SWP’s website and signage to alternative sites, and site staff will be on hand to redirect visitors.
Among the maintenance and improvements will be work to make space for visitor parking, better vehicle access around the site, an extension to the ramped area, a range of new signs and railings, a good clean up and a big lick of paint.
All the work is being carried out by firms from Somerset or nearby, including Ikon Construction, RT Signs of Bridgwater, and Viridor’s own maintenance team. Steelwork fabrication by Richard Marshall and his sons from Marshall’s Mobile Welding of Templecombe will include an innovative gantry to hold wheeled bins for smaller items, such as print cartridges and cellphones.
While the recycling centre already takes a wide selection of materials – asbestos, batteries and cans to metals, textiles and wood by way of engine oil, fluorescent tubes and fridges – the hope is that extra space will allow even more items and materials to be accepted.
For Somerset Waste Partnership, senior operations officer Kerry Ellis is taking the lead for the Frome Recycling Centre revamp. He says it has been long awaited and added, “These are essential enhancements that are long overdue. I think visitors will really appreciate the new-look centre, and I’m hoping it will both take a lot more material and see a higher recycling rate in the coming years.”
