'Electric powered' refuse tip reopens (From The Bolton News)

'Electric powered' refuse tip reopens

BOLTON'S busiest rubbish dump has reopened - six weeks after work began on the site's incinerator.

The council-owned tip on Raikes Lane, Burnden, now has a facility to turn rubbish into electricity and is fully operational, according to its bosses.

The work was completed ahead of schedule. Bosses at the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority believed the site would have remained closed until August 9.

The site shut down when a waste heat boiler for the energy generator arrived too early and was stored on the land where people normally throw their non-dustbin rubbish.

Boiler

But after a 1,000 foot crane lifted the four-storey boiler into place on the incinerator, turning it into an electricity generator and freeing the land, the site was quickly re-opened.

Its re-opening has come as a relief to the town's residents who were angry at being told they had to take their rubbish to either Bury or Salford.

The tip is now accepting paper, batteries, oil, scrap metal, books, fridges and freezers and, for recycling purposes, glass and plastic bottles, cans and textiles.

And in two weeks time the site, which opens from 8am to 8pm seven days a week, will also allow people to hand over their garden waste.

Daniel Gould, a spokesman for Greater Manchester Waste Limited, said: "Members of the public can now bring their household waste and just throw it over the wall. We're sorry for the inconvenience of the past few weeks."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.