The opening of a new £12.5 million waste recycling plant near Leeds is set to take pressure off a controversial operation on Canal Road, Bradford.

Around 30 jobs are being created at Associated Waste Management Ltd’s new plant at Gelderd Road, Morley, which will process more than 200,000 tonnes of waste, including from Bradford, Leeds and Calderdale councils.

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls is due to attend an open day for invited guests at the new plant next week.

Bradford-based AWM’s new Leeds “Super MRF” site will put it at the forefront of recycling technology. The firm has clinched new recycling contracts from Bradford, Calderdale and Leeds councils, meaning AWM will be responsible for recycling household waste from around 250,000 houses across the region.

The site will allow AWM to achieve its ambition of eliminating the need to send waste to landfill sites through improved recovery of materials and diverting organic matter to compost.

Material currently sent to landfill will be turned into a fuel to power energy plants, power stations and other high-energy-users in the UK and overseas. AWM said every tonne of refuse-derived fuel produced was equivalent to approximately 850kw hours of power.

Time Shapcott, business development director, said much of the recycled material would go to Denmark to produce steam and electricity for neighbourhood heating schemes, which were not common in the UK due to a lack of suitable infrastructure.

AWM is one of Yorkshire’s leading independent integrated waste management and recycling companies providing services to companies throughout West and North Yorkshire and on the M62 corridor.

The company, which was formed in 2000 by John Brooksbank, has more than trebled in size in the past three years, from 35 employees to around 200 through organic growth and strategic acquisitions of other waste and recycling companies, including Just Recycling Group, Aero Waste Disposal and Leeds Environmental Organisation.

Mr Shapcott said: “Through acquiring these companies we have benefited from economies of scale, increased geographical coverage and a client base of industrial and commercial customers, giving us a critical mass throughout the region.”

The firm has several locations in West Yorkshire including Shipley, where it invested £3 million in 2008 on new recycling equipment, along with Leeds and satellite operations near York and Selby and landfill and quarrying operations near Bradford and Leeds.

AWM has been granted planning permission to erect a £1 million building to enclose its Canal Road recycling centre following complaints from concerned local residents about noise and health risks.