A Dorset recycling company says it has become ‘ultra green’ after investing more than half a million pounds in an electric wood shredder.

Eco Sustainable Solutions’ new Untha shredder is now in full operation at its Parley site, handling up to 65,000 tonnes of waste wood annually.

The wood, from household recycling sites in Dorset and Hampshire, is shredded for biomass fuel.

The fuel is used for Eco’s onsite combined and heat plant (CHP) as well as a separate biomass burner in South Wales.

Justin Dampney, Operations Director, said the shredder had the benefit of being self-powered with electricity from Eco’s CHP.

He added: “Our operations are already environmentally friendly but this catapults us into the ‘ultra green’ league.

“We’re effectively closing the renewable loop by turning waste into fuel to generate electricity which is partly used to power the shredder to process the waste

“We’ve also stopped sending wood fuel for export to Sweden, reducing our carbon footprint, so it’s a win-win.

“This is traditionally an energy-hungry sector, with noisy, high wear and high maintenance equipment.

“The electric shredder avoids using diesel operated, and hence energy-guzzling and noisy, machines which can be harmful to the environment.”

The Untha XR3000 mobile-e shredder has a crawler-type undercarriage allowing it to be easily moved to any spot using remote control.

Eco is using it to shred wood waste into biomass fuel at a rate of 25 tonnes per hour.

The company is expecting to save energy consumption and costs by up to 50 per cent thanks to the machine being powered by electricity.

Founded in 1994, Eco employs 38 people and has an annual turnover of £10 million. The company annually processes 250,000 tonnes of material at its Parley site, the UK’s leading purpose-built site for organics recycling and renewable energy. End products include enriched topsoil, compost and woodchip.

The business currently handles 340,000 tonnes of organic material each year across four facilities, including its highly successful anaerobic digestion (AD) plant at Piddlehinton near Dorchester.

Eco has held the contract with Dorset Waste Partnership to handle the county’s food, wood and green waste since 2008.