Pictured above: Carl Durrant

With waste heralded as one of the new saviours of the big sheds, Carl Durrant, King Sturge industrial agent is seeing more enquiries than ever before from waste recycling occupiers.

"New European Landfill Directives are opening up the market as  local authorities are being pushed to increase their recycling targets by 2010.  Whilst incineration was previously seen as the simplest option, alternative methods of disposal using high tech and comparatively clean solutions from national and international waste management companies is fuelling the need for large sheds." Says Carl

SITA and Viridor are two of the largest players in the waste management markets, with a number of new start ups also jumping on the growing trend for turning muck into brass.

Typically waste operators are looking for facilities of 100, 000 sq ft plus and with new contracts to be gained with local councils across the UK, the opportunities are many.

"Birmingham and the Black Country is an ideal outlet for waste recycling companies." Says Carl.  Being one of the UK's largest urban conurbations the council has a huge commitment for disposing of waste and if they don't meet their recycling targets they could face fines of thousands of pounds.  For many waste operators, local authority service contracts provide the mainstay of their business."

Carl sites Trinity Point, an 120, 000 sq ft  shed on junction 2 of the M5 as an ideal location for the expanding waste management sector and has been pointing the increasing number of enquiries in this area to the high bay distribution/warehouse unit.

Located at the heart of the UK transport network, Trinity Point offers opportunities to target Birmingham and the Black Country and can provide a good central hub for waste management companies as Carl adds "These companies need the road infrastructure to accommodate the volume of vehicles required to move waste locally and around the country and for that reason they also tend to be away from residential areas."

Whilst the enquiries are flowing, planning permission can be the biggest hold-up for expanding companies.  Recycling counts as B2 industrial use, but waste operators also need a special licence from the Environment Agency, which can take anything from six to 18 months to secure.

"We expect it may take a while to bring to fruition some of these enquiries," says Carl "Depending on the type of operation, converting existing building can be prohibitively expensive if, for example, they require specialist facilities such as those composting organic matter which require under floor ventilation.

"With a dormant speculative market, it is going to be waste management companies that can get up and running with existing sheds that will be most likely to make the agents come up smelling of roses.  It's a relatively young market though and if we look at other European countries we're only just scratching the surface of the sector's potential and there will be a steep learning curve for landlords and agents."