With three of its biggest sites located within just a few miles of each other, Liverpool is one of EMR’s most important, and busy, locations.
This includes both Liverpool Gladstone and Liverpool Alexandra deep-sea docks, alongside a site on Bankhall Lane in Bootle. The person with the responsibility of keeping it all running smoothly is Scott Bamborough, General Manager for Liverpool.
“The Alexandra site operates EMR’s largest metal shredder – a 10,000 horsepower machine with the capability to process more than 400 tonnes per hour. It also has a dock facility that allows us to export scrap metal to markets anywhere in the world,”
The site was also the first to trial the new Sennebogen 895e Hybrid material handler which, at 400-tonnes, dwarfs EMR’s existing material handling and ship loading equipment. And, as EMR prepares to hit net-zero by 2040, it can move material without the use of fossil fuels.
“It’s part of a new generation of loading equipment that meets the hybrid specifications that EMR’s long term sustainability strategy demands,”
And, because the three Liverpool sites encompass so many parts of EMR’s business – from the collection of scrap to its processing and export – Scott says his team must be particularly agile as market conditions change, especially during the uncertainty of COVID-19.
“The biggest challenge we’ve had in Liverpool has been to switch to a lower level of operation during the pandemic. We then subsequently had to fulfil the needs of a booming market as the sector recovered.”
Fortunately, Scott says the team at his three Liverpool sites have been invaluable throughout this difficult period.
“I was fortunate to inherit a long-serving core team of very experienced metal recycling experts who’ve seen it all before and know how to get the job done. These people are a huge asset to EMR, however as the industry transforms, it’s important to bring new perspectives into the team, too.”
One area that EMR has gained valuable insight from, Scott says, is the food industry:
“It’s been a real eye-opener because there’s a lot of expertise needed to keep modern food production plants going. By recruiting people with the skills from this sector, we’ve managed to gain a much better understanding of the condition of our facility; improving things like our planned maintenance.
“Their insight led EMR to bring in a number of technologies that I didn’t even know existed.”
As Scott builds a team for the fast-moving, innovative recycling industry of the future, he reflects on his own journey at EMR.
“I’ve been working for EMR since I was 19. I started at the weighbridge office and those first 12 to 13 months gave me the best start to my career I could have hoped for – I had to understand the quality of the products we were buying in and where they were ultimately going.
“From there, I moved to the operational side, splitting my time between the shredder plant and carrying out maintenance where it was needed. I also spent a few of years as part of the ship-loading team before an opportunity came up for an assistant manager position. From there, I went on to become depot manager before I took the role of area manager.”
And because of this depth of experience Scott can appreciate the huge transformation of the metal recycling sector.
“It's incredibly exciting. Recycled metal is going to play such a big role as the UK heads towards net-zero. The steel industry is a huge carbon contributor and the drive to stop using iron from blast furnaces and use more recycled material is something that will keep me busy until retirement and keep EMR in business long after that.”
Read about our sustainability commitments and our plan to be net-zero by 2040.
