Monmouthshire firm Siltbuster, one of the UK’s leading water treatment specialists, has been shortlisted for the prestigious MRW National Recycling Awards 2016.

The company is a finalist in the Equipment Innovation Category for its Gritbuster WT-250.

The Gritbuster WT-250 makes it easier for materials recycling facilities to separate out on a large scale the constituent elements of the waste they handle.

This saves them a fortune in landfill tax - a typical recycling company using the system will gain £742,000 per year in reduced landfill tax and material reuse.

It also ensures more material can be recycled as aggregate, rather than go to landfill, so it’s good for the environment too.

Designed, developed and built by Siltbuster’s engineers at its operation in Monmouth, Gritbuster WT-250 is uniquely designed to handle road sweepings, gully waste and trommel fines on a commercial scale, handling up to 25 tonnes per hour. It cleverly uses water to further separate out recyclable materials - washed gravel and sand products.

The Gritbuster WT-250 is meeting a major need within the recycling industry. In April 2015 trommel fines with high organic content were subject to a big hike in landfill tax - being taxed at £80 per tonne rather than the rate of £2.50 per tonne they had enjoyed in the past. For a typical company dealing with 10,000 tonnes a year of this could result in their landfill tax bill rise by £600,000 per annum, a cost to be passed on to local authorities, and in turn consumers.

Trommel fines typically comprise 80 per cent material that, if separated, would qualify for the lower landfill tax rate, dramatically reducing annual landfill tax bills – and importantly boosting materials reuse. Yet companies didn’t have a large scale, commercially viable system to handle this separation.

Siltbuster recognised this and came up with Gritbuster WT-250 - a viable way of separating this material from the other “non-qualifying material” on a significant scale.

So far two Gritbuster WT-250s have been installed in permanent UK locations, a third is deployed on a contract basis and a fourth has been bought by the recycling equipment giant, Doppstadt, as a demonstration machine in Germany, Holland, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy and France.

George Anderson, Siltbuster director, said: “The Gritbuster WT-250 is helping companies save a lot of money and recycle more too. It’s a win win for commerce and the environment. We were already very proud of this development, but to have such a prestigious award recognise its potential in this way is a fantastic endorsement for the system and our team.”

The winners of the MRW National Recycling Awards 2016 will be announced in July.