Inside the huge metal recycling plant at Red Scar – Blog Preston

But what goes on beyond the security gates? And what’s it like for those who work there? Blog Preston was granted access to see behind the scenes at the recycling giant.

Operations director, Graeme Slater, has worked at the Longridge Road site for the past 13 years.

He said: “Since the buy-out we’ve seen a big shift in how we process the materials here and we’ve really become focused back on the metals side.

“The site had expanded significantly before that to handle lots of different materials but the Global Ardour firm took the decision to just go back to metal recycling.”

Mr Slater, who lives in nearby Goosnargh, explained how they worked closely with council-run tips and private firms to get the waste bundles sorted before they arrive on site.

He said: “We use our pre-shredder we call it before it goes into the main shredder. It’s smaller and it means if there’s any dangerous items inside it can contain those ‘pops’ as we call them when cannisters or batteries may explode within it.

“You would be amazed what people put into the waste.”

Going up in smoke?

When it was Recycling Lives the site became synonymous in Preston with some large-scale fires most recently in March 2023 with a fire that saw crews from across all of Lancashire called to bring it under control.

An aerial view of the fire which ripped through waste piles at the Longridge Road site in 2023 Pic: LFRS drone

Mr Slater said: “We will always carry a risk of fires, and no one will ever be able to rule out one taking place because of the nature of what we do.

“People don’t perhaps realise it’s absolutely devastating for us when one of those large fires happens. It sets us back weeks.

“We have really invested in thermal cameras to try and help with identifying early if a fire is beginning on site and the move to solely focus on metal processing has also helped.”

Mr Slater said they had a good relationship with Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service and had in recent years invested in a new water pressure system with a tank under the Red Scar site which can hold 200,000 litres of water.

He said: “The water pressure here is not fantastic and that’s a big factor for the fire service being able to tackle those fires when they happen – so we’ve put the tank in ourselves to ensure there is a good supply ready if needed.”

The firm also has three old fire service vehicles, donated to them by the fire service, which can be operated by their teams on site.

A training exercise by fire crews at the Longridge Road site

The fire service also regularly use the Red Scar site for training exercises particularly to be able to simulate car crashes using vehicles before they go into the crusher.

Mr Slater said people often mistook steam coming from their main crusher for fire.

He said: “You will always have steam when it is operating because of the pressure and the heat, that is a normal thing to see.”

The crusher is only allowed to operate from 7.30am to 5.30pm on Monday to Friday and until lunchtime on Saturdays – a condition applied when the licence for the site was granted due to its proximity to nearby housing estates.

The rise of the e-bikes and batteries

Beth Mason, who works alongside Mr Slater in their control centre, outlined the variety of items they find within waste bundles which arrive.

She said: “Our biggest challenge used to be gas cannisters – and we still see them within the waste – but people are a bit more wise now to not putting those in the general waste and we have also worked closely with council tips and other providers to make sure they are sorted out before they reach us.

“What we have seen in recent years is the rapid increase in lithium batteries because of just how many different devices they are in.

“From power tools, to vapes, to e-scooters, to electric toothbrushes, there’s just do many getting thrown into the waste and they all end up here.

“So our pre-shredder is really important for getting those filtered out and also our crews on the pickers who spot them in the conveyor belts.”

Discarded power tool bases found in waste — Discarded e-scooters

While these batteries can be small, and in many cases are becoming smaller and smaller, Beth said they were one of the main causes of any fires on site and they saw two to three small fires each week which needed containing – and the batteries were often the cause of the ‘pops’ heard from their pre-shredder device.

Beth said a fines system is being looked at for waste providers bringing their waste bundles to the site to try and encourage them to sort the batteries before the waste bundles arrive at Red Scar.

Crushing the nuisance bikes

One area the Global Ardour team have seen huge growth in recent years is the e-scooter and e-bikes arriving at their doors.

Lancashire Police, and other police forces, are at war with illegally modified e-bikes used for crime.

When seized the vehicles make their way to the Longridge Road site to then be stripped down and crushed.

Seized e-bikes and scooters Pic: Blog Preston

Mr Slater said: “We have absolutely loads of these bikes coming into us now because it seems like the police are getting a handle on it and they are confiscated.

“We see it here and at our other sites across the country too but increasingly all vehicles where police take them away a lot of them have tracking on now so we have to step up security because people try and come to retrieve them – because they have them linked to their phone and can see exactly where they are.”

A place for a second chance

A focus back on metal has helped the business since it became Global Ardour, says Mr Slater, with the price of copper in particularly surging in recent months.

The firm make their money by selling the scrap metal – mainly abroad – where it is smelted down to make steel or other products.

Processed metals at Global Ardour Pic: Blog Preston

Around 180 people work at the site and Beth says they have remained committed to the ethos of Recycling Lives and continue to work with the charity-arm of that organisation through its work with rehabilitating offenders.

Beth said: “It’s been a really successful programme and we see people come to us who haven’t had a job for years and we give them the opportunity to show that despite what happened in the past they want to make a go of their lives now.

“It’s like a big family here and we continue the work with the Recycling Lives Charity to ensure those who are at risk of re-offending stay on the right path and often that is paid work with us.”

Global Ardour has continued to make an annual sponsorship payment to support the work of the Recycling Lives Charity – something which was previously maintained by the Recycling Lives Services business when it operated the recycling plants.

Looking to the future

Mr Slater says he feels the firm is moving into a good position for its future since the buy-out, although it faces considerable challenges due to energy consumption.

He said: “We have really expanded what we do with solar energy at Longridge Road, if we can get say a quarter of our energy use being self-filled by solar panels that will really help protect us.

“We’ve also been building back up the number of staff again. It was a really difficult period around January last year and we had to unfortunately let people go, but we’ve been able to start re-hiring in many cases.

“And we’re investing in further security and health and safety procedures as we re-work this and other sites too.”

The Global Ardour firm, operated by Ashish Chaudhari, Sundip Goyal and Gaurav Chaudhary, have also recently bought Adelphi Limited based at Newport Dock in Wales which is due to see them expand into the deep-sea vessel market.

Mr Slater said: “We see a lot of the owners, they will pop in and see how things are going – but they also know and trust us to get the business on a firm footing and ensure everything is running smoothly. They are really invested in its future and as us as people too.”

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