AS THE old saying goes, where there’s muck, there’s brass, that is certainly something Associated Waste Management abide by.

The Bradford-based firm turn household and commercial waste and rubbish into energy and fuel, transporting it across the UK and Europe.

The company’s £5 million Canal Road recycling plant, which employs 56 people over two daily shifts, recovers material such as sheets of paper and plastic film, which in the past would have been sent to landfill sites because it was considered uneconomic to recover.

AMW provides waste management and recycling to companies throughout West and North Yorkshire and on the M62 corridor between Halifax and Selby.

They currently have 2,300 customers on its ever-expanding books.

The group also boasts a client list including Bradford and Leeds city councils and ones from a little further afield.

Using a technique called Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF), the firm use this system as an alternative to landfill.

RDF is a high calorific, compressed bale, with each one produced weighing 1.2 tonnes, covered in a lining, held together by twine with each cube around four foot high.

These bales are produced from sorting waste at the Canal Road plant all day every day. Each lorry can take 26 bales, with 25 vehicles transported from their site to Immingham Docks each day, where it is then sent by sea freight.

These bales of RDF generates substantial energy in the form of heat, steam and electricity, approximately 850 kwh per tonne.

They are destined for locations across Europe and can only be produced from the household and commercial waste in and around Bradford.

But it is AWM’s contract with Bradford council which is currently their biggest, as Tim Shapcott, business development director, explains.

He said: “We’ve had a contract with Bradford council for the last four years.

“We are in the process of extending it with them. It’s an example of public-private partnership.

“Bradford council is our biggest customer. They have helped us move into the next generation.

“We want to develop the technology that we use. New technology will enable us to broaden our commercial scope. The waste was going to landfill years ago instead. It’s used for a better purpose now.

“The reason we have got so many contracts is because we use different types of waste.

“The plant and equipment we use was the first of its kind in the UK in 2008. It was quite innovative at the time.

“The councils we have contracts with could still be going to landfill and it would cost them more to use landfill than we charge them.”

RDF is big business. Last year, the UK market for the export of this went in excess of 1.5 million tonnes.

Of this, AWM itself took a 10 per cent share of the market, exporting across Europe, including to location in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Holland and Germany.

They are also looking to move into new markets in Finland, Poland and Latvia.

Every bale of RDF produces enough energy to benefit 200,000 homes and 150,000 firms. Last year, AWM exported 145,000 tonnes of refuse derived fuel to Combined Heat and Power plants in Northern Europe. This means they are one of the largest exporters of energy from waste fuel in the north of England.

AWM currently employ a total of 283 people, with 176, or 62 per cent, of these living within the Bradford district.

The firm calculates they provide Bradford with annual salaried revenue of £5 million.

With the company currently proving a district success story, they are looking at further avenues to boost their productivity, including using new technology forms.

Mr Shapcott added: “We are looking to upgrade our system. We are looking at introducing more technology through infra-red technology to photograph all the waste and put it through a series of cameras.

“We want to reduce our dependency on burning material. This kit cost us £7 million in 2008. The next stage is using higher technology.

“The technology is changing every five years. How do you separate the raw materials in waste more efficiently?”

But it has not always been plain sailing for AWM.

Obviously, with the line of work they are in, odours are produced at the plant.

Earlier this year, the Canal Road site hit the headlines after the Environment Agency received hundreds of calls about the smell.

However, AWM responded to these 500 reports between April 2013 and February this year and were praised by Bradford council for their subsequent action.

One of the systems they use to control odours are a series of carbon extraction canopies placed under the roof of the plant, produced by firm Metalcraft.

These pre-filter boxes then absorb the smell the plant produces to take it away.

Mr Shapcott says these measures have drastically helped this situation.

He said: “We have enough of these boxes to create a negative pressure. We have also enclosed our yard.”

Not only has the reduction in odour complaints boosted community relations, but also their work with residents and schools within the Bradford district.

For instance, AWM opened a new community education facility at their Canal Road premises.

The facility, opened in April this year, can accommodate community and school groups and demonstrates the high level of technology used to recycle the district’s waste.

Pupils from Frizinghall Primary School created the artwork for this education room.

As well as activities which include interactive video, work sheets and waste audits can also see first-hand how AWM divert waste from landfill by producing refuse-derived fuel.

This all forms part of the company’s corporate social responsibility and includes sponsoring the kit of Bolton Woods U16s football team.

Mr Shapcott added: “We have done a lot of work in the community. We have had about 1,000 kids through our sites and through assemblies.

“We also work with the University of Bradford. We have done community work in Bolton Woods and Wrose.

“We, as a commercial company, understand the power of that. It’s easy to alienate people in this business. Better communication is very powerful.”