COMPANY PROFILE - BY SANDRA DICK
seem to prove, sisters are doing it for themselves. So how has she done it?
Recycling and waste management was far from her mind when she left Sheffi eld University with a sales and marketing degree. She had ten years working for a drinks giant selling big name brands like Stella Artois and Heineken, before stepping into that demanding interview for the role of purchasing manager at Axion Recycling in Salford.
“At fi rst I thought this wasn’t for me,” she added. “Then I thought I’d stick with it. I didn’t want to give up too easily, plus I knew the recycling industry had a lot of potential.”
When her role was made redundant, she set up as a broker, working from home with just her phone, laptop and a head full of good contacts.
“I saw I had a couple of customers who were doing massive volumes of PVC - 500 tonnes a month – which was going off to be granulated.
Realised I could set up own plant
“There were businesses that were stripping cables for copper and left with plastic casings that were being sent to China or to landfi ll. And with the route to China closing, people were being left with it, with no granulators on site.
“It made me realise I could just set up my own recycling plant.”
She sourced fi nance with help from Rochdale’s Business Source Hub’s Access to Finance service, and Oldham-based business fi nance fi rm, PMD. “I got a shredder and a couple of granulators, a bagging station and pallet system from a Scunthorpe company, and that was it,” she said.
MB Recycling Consultants Ltd opened in Heywood, Rochdale, in September last year with the aim of taking waste plastic from manufacturers, shredding and granulating it into 2mm pieces, and then redistributing it to be made into other products.
Her staff of four currently handle around 200 tonnes of material per month – 300 tonnes would be capacity. Whereas before she didn’t know much about virgin and recycled plastic, she now trades in LDPE fi lm, low grade fi lm like shopping bags,
IT'S a family aff air - Mother and daughter Tricia Murray and Francesca Murray-Smith from Bucks Recycling in Westcott.
rigid material such as wheelie bins, PVC, IBC containers, contaminated plastics, automotive plastics and PP woven sacks.
She admits there have been challenges to building her own ‘DIY’ recycling business: “Challenges were getting the throughput on the equipment, and trying to fi nd out what waste materials go through it,” she added.
“Just trying to get to companies to talk to us about what we do has also been challenging.”
Now fi rmly settled as one of the industry’s few women bosses, she has a masterplan to shift up a gear from day shifts, fi ve days a week, to a 24/7 operation - in a larger plant with more kit.
From having little grasp of the recycling business back at the start, she’s now right at home.
“I fi nd it fascinating to see what can be used,” she added. “Recycling is now a passion.”
www.mbrecycling.co.uk
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TREND setting Jacqueline O’Donovan, MD of O’Donovan Waste Disposal, was named as Industry Champion at last year’s FTA everywoman in Transport and Logistics Awards.
SHM April, 2018 13
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