A TYRONE firm has unveiled plans to take on 25 new staff after securing recycling contracts work £4 million in the past month.

CDE Ireland, based in Cookstown, designs and manufactures equipment for the quarrying and recycling industries and it hopes to take on as many as 75 new employees over the coming year. This is because of a huge surge in its business following the EU commitment to recycle 70% of all construction and demolition waste by 2020. This has brought a huge boost in demand for its services and equipment.

The aggregates industry, in particular, has been under enormous pressure to find ways to conserve and make best use of increasingly scarce natural materials and one way to do this is to reuse, reclaim or recycle construction, demolition and excavation waste materials.

The Cookstown company has conducted research in the field and set about finding environmentally friendly solutions to construciton and demolition waste. It now says its equipment can turn millon of tonnes of such waste into commercially viable materials.

They have built up a vast level of knowledge and experience in customising numerous construction and demolition waste recycling plants throughout Britain, most recently at Derwen Construction in West Glamorgan on the outskirts of Swansea.

The Derwen plant is the first of its kind in Wales and offers a greener alternative to waste disposal at landfill sites. The majority of the materials processed at Derwen originate from green-field excavations and rock overburden; materials which are normally sent to landfills. These materials are now processed by the CDE plant producing high quality, washed, sustainable, certified aggregates which conform to both British and European standards and furthermore contribute towards minimising waste to landfill and meeting landfill targets.

CDE managing director Brendan McGurgan said, "We are delighted with the £4 millon worth recycling contracts last month and are pleased to ber contribuiton to the sustainability of the industry through provision of our recycling solutions, whilst adding sifnificant value for our customers."

CDE have also confirmed their attendance at the forthcoming Recycling and Waste Management exhibition at the NEC, Birmingham, in September at which they will be providing details on how their products can be used in this area to help companies meet the stringent targets laid down for the recycling of construction and demolition waste.

"The RWM exhibition is the leading recycling show in the UK and Ireland and the theme of our stand at the show will be 'profit from waste'," explains CDE marketing manager, Peter Craven. "The range of products we can offer this particular sector of the market allow customers to produce products that can actually generate revenue.

"Previously, these products would have incurred considerable costs as they were simply disposed of in various ways including landfill sites."