WITNEY MP Robert Courts visited an advanced recycling plant near Oxford to find out more about how building waste is disposed of.

Mr Courts was joined by Nicholas Field-Johnson, head of Development at Oxford University, for a tour of the Sheehan Group’s advanced recycling plant in Stanton Harcourt, near Oxford.

The water treatment facility is used to wash construction and demolition waste, destined for landfill, before turning it into reusable aggregate.

In the past five years The Sheehan Group, a construction and recycling company, has saved 500,000 tonnes of waste from UK landfill sites via the plant.

Half of the recycled material is used in its own construction projects and the rest is sold to contractors.

Mr Courts said: “ Instead of shipping waste abroad or putting it into landfill we need to find innovative and sustainable ways to reuse it.

“Sheehan are leading the way in this area and I am delighted to have such a pioneering company based here in West Oxfordshire.”

Chris Sheehan, managing director, of the Sheehan Group, said: “Recycling and sustainable construction is crucial for the UK and it is at the heart of our strategy and values as a business.

“It is important politicians and key decision makers understand the importance of what we are doing and the scope there is to make construction in Oxfordshire much more sustainable.

The company is due to appeal a county council planning decision that refused permission to increase operational capacity at the plant.