McKinstry Group opens Northern Ireland's most advanced construction and demolition recycling facility

Northern Ireland waste management firm McKinstry Group has invested £16m in what will become the country's largest construction, demolition and industrial (CD&I) waste recycling facility, with final commissioning scheduled for spring 2026 at its Nutts Corner site in County Antrim. The development represents a significant advance in waste processing capability for the Northern Ireland construction sector.

Waste Management World reported that the plant has been designed, manufactured and installed by Kiverco, with Pellenc ST supplying the optical sorting technology. The project included significant earthworks and the construction of a new building to house the processing installation.

At the core of the facility are six Mistral+ CONNECT Full Package optical sorters configured to recover rigid plastics, flexible plastics, brown cardboard and wood from mixed CD&I waste streams. The system incorporates CNS BRAIN, an AI-based module for fibre sorting and wood classification, enabling separation of wood into A- and B-grade fractions to support consistent material quality.

The entire process has been designed with the flexibility to increase capacity as demand grows, with the architecture allowing for software-based upgrades of sensors and sorting technologies to adapt to evolving operational requirements.

The investment is backed by Bank of Ireland through a Green Capex Loan and forms a key part of McKinstry Group's strategy to enable real-time waste monitoring and reporting for the group and its supply chain partners.

Darren McKinstry, managing director of McKinstry Group, said: "We have collaborated closely with Kiverco and other key partners to realise a shared vision of creating the most innovative and efficient construction, demolition, and industrial recycling plant in the industry."

View the full report on McKinstry Group's new CD&I recycling facility.