A NEW recycling base and a centre for storing and shifting thousands of tonnes of rubbish could be built on the edge of York.

Plans are being drawn up by Yorwaste Ltd for the facilities next to the existing Harewood Whin landfill site at Rufforth after controversial proposals for a £900 million waste incinerator between York and Harrogate were put forward.

If the Tinker Lane scheme goes ahead, a waste transfer station would be set up to “bulk up” and initially move up to 70,000 tonnes of black-bag rubbish each year, falling to 60,000 tonnes annually in 2019, to the proposed Allerton Waste Recovery Park, a joint project between City of York Council and North Yorkshire County Council which aims to reduce their waste and landfill tax bills.

Yorwaste’s plans also include a material recovery facility for sorting recyclable materials such as cans, plastic, paper, cardboard and glass, which would no longer go to the recycling centre in Hessay.

The firm has said the development could involve 267 vehicles arriving or leaving each day.

A full planning application has yet to be submitted, but Yorwaste has handed in a “scoping” opinion to York council, which covers aspects such as environmental issues.

It said the recycling base would have a 20-year lifespan and the amount of waste it would handle would be between 25,000 and 60,000 tonnes a year.

In a statement to the council, agents acting for Yorwaste – which is jointly owned by the authority and the county council but is run as a commercial operation – said: “Landfill was the predominant means of waste management at the Harewood Whin site for a number of years.

“However, more recent planning permissions have diversified the type of waste management activities which can be undertaken at the site to include composting, recycling and the generation of renewable energy from waste material.”

The facilities would operate from 7am to 11pm every day of the week and lorries weighing as much as 25 tonnes would be used to take waste to the Allerton plant, which is backed by £65 million in private finance initiative cash.

Opponents of the incinerator say it would be too expensive and alternatives should be considered.