Northern Ireland-based McKinstry has committed £16 million (approximately €19 million) to the development of a construction, demolition and industrial (CD&I) waste recycling facility in County Antrim, with final commissioning scheduled for spring 2026.

As reported by LetsRecycle.com, the facility has been designed, manufactured, and installed by Kiverco, with optical sorting technology supplied by Pellenc ST. Central to the installation are six Mistral+ CONNECT Full Package optical sorters engineered to maximise recovery of rigid plastics, flexible plastics, brown cardboard, and wood from mixed waste streams.

The system has been built with scalability in mind, featuring a Future-Proof architecture that allows sensor and technology upgrades through software updates as processing demands grow. McKinstry also plans to integrate CNS BRAIN, an artificial intelligence module aimed at improving fibre sorting performance and enabling accurate separation of wood into A- and B-grade fractions.

JP Devlin, Sales Manager at Kiverco, noted that the installation incorporates in-house digital technologies for performance monitoring and automated maintenance alerts to optimise uptime and operational efficiency. The system is also connected to SMART&SHARE, providing real-time operational data and enabling ongoing adjustment of sorting parameters.

The project involves extensive earthworks alongside the construction of a purpose-built facility to house the processing equipment, with the completed site expected to significantly expand regional capacity for CD&I waste recovery and treatment across Northern Ireland.

The investment reflects accelerating demand for advanced waste processing infrastructure across the UK and Ireland, driven by tightening regulatory requirements, higher recycling rate targets, and the push toward circular economy models that prioritise material recovery over landfill disposal.

Step inside the full details of McKinstry's County Antrim recycling facility in the complete report.