THE proposed halving of the number of workers at Huddersfield’s Sita site leaves a question mark hanging over its green credentials.
If the jobs go the Unite union says 15,000 tonnes of green waste would be shipped 135 miles to the North East and its difficult to see how a recycling company can justify transporting recyclable waste by lorry all the way to Teesside when the Hillhouse plant handles an average of 2,248 tonnes of recyclable rubbish every month.
Sita Kirklees spent about a £1m upgrading the Kirklees facility just two years ago and signed a 25 year contract to recycle Kirklees waste in 1998 which means the council is stuck with Sita for many years no matter how the company decides to operate in sorting out Huddersfield’s recyclable waste.
More jobs may be created in the North East but they will be lost here and some of them are unskilled. There are also fears that those who remain face massive salary cuts.
The end result is that Kirklees will be poorer for this decision whatever way you look at it.
