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14
Oct
Allerton Waste Recovery Park: Seven years of missed targets
North Yorkshire Council has defended the recycling record at Allerton Waste Recovery Park, which has failed to achieve its target for seven successive years.
The recovery park, which is run by Thalia Waste Management on behalf of North Yorkshire Council and City of York Council, is based off the A1(M) near Knaresborough.
Built at a cost of £1.2 billion to divert 320,000 tonnes of waste a year from landfill, it includes a mechanical treatment plant, an anaerobic digester and an incinerator that generates energy from waste.
But, according to a 2025/26 performance report, the plant continues to miss its recycling target.
The report says that last year the recovery park recycled 1.76% of waste against a contractual requirement of 5%.
The site has not met the target any year since it began operation in 2018.
Inside the Allerton Waste Recovery Park. Picture: North Yorkshire Council.
Lisa Cooper, commercial manager for waste at North Yorkshire Council, said in a report that the plant had an “ongoing focus on improving performance”.
She pointed out that for material to be counted towards the recycling target, they have to be placed into markets. However, she added that often the recycled material at the plant was “poorer” than that produced by households.
Ms Cooper said:
For material to count towards the recycling target, any recyclates that are extracted from the processes at AWRP need to be placed into markets.
AWRP separates recyclables from residual waste meaning that the quality of the product is poorer than recyclables collected separately from households at the kerbside. Recycling reprocessors choose higher quality materials over poorer quality ones meaning that despite the materials being separated at AWRP, there were times when they could not be placed into the market.
She added that markets have also been affected by “external factors” such as covid and high energy costs which affect processing capacity.
Councillors will discuss Ms Cooper's report at a transport, economy, environment and enterprise scrutiny committee on October 21.
Call for review
It comes as Green Party councillors on North Yorkshire Council called for an independent review of the plant’s contract in July.
Councillor, David Noland, a member of the authority’s transport, economy, environment and enterprise scrutiny committee, said the continued failure to meet targets raised important questions about whether the facility had delivered what was promised.
He said:
Seven years after opening, Allerton Waste Recovery Park still hasn’t met its recycling target once.
People were promised a modern facility that would recycle more, send less waste to landfill and deliver better value for money.
Instead, we’ve seen missed targets, repeated breakdowns and a contract that seems to accept failure as long as a financial penalty is paid.
Residents deserve an independent review so we can find out whether this project has really delivered what was promised.
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