United Metals Recycling Group offers an integrated site processing service, including recycling, demolition, end-waste processing and waste certification. 

United Metals Recycling (UMR) Group was established in 2010 as a joint venture between the Donlan and Hegarty families, two highly-respected families within the recycling sector. The company is best described as a dynamic family business with vast generational experience in metal recycling and demolition.

Since 2010, the UMR Group has grown to become a top metal recycler in Ireland, currently employing over 70 people directly.

In recent years, UMR established a strategic alliance with civil and building contractor Lymar Contracts Ltd. This has enabled UMR to avail of additional civils and construction expertise and maximise the efficiency of its demolition operations. Although headquartered in Limerick, UMR operates nationwide, with much of its demolition activities in Dublin.

Eoin Hegarty, Director, UMR, says that the company has worked on several BREEAM and LEED projects over the past few years. “We work best with our clients when we guide and encourage them in relation to recycling in the early stages of projects,” Eoin Hegarty explains. “This is the ideal time for us to come on board. While LEED and BREEAM consultants tend to be brought in later, we can offer the best value by being on board as early as possible. We cover everything from a demolition and recycling perspective, including LEED and BREEAM, and provide all the necessary documentation.”

United Metals Recycling Group service package

United Metals Recycling Group’s core business has always been metals recycling. It also provides skips and on-demand collections from building sites across Ireland. It is currently contracted on several of Ireland’s major construction and infrastructure projects and has clients in the pharma and food production industries.

Tony Donlan, Director, UMR Group, explains that the company offers a quick turnaround on collections.

“Most importantly, we provide full certification and peace of mind for contractors to know that materials are being processed and shipped to foundries directly, ensuring closed-loop guarantees,” Donlan explains.

UMR Group’s demolition teams provide demolition services and PSCS expertise on the complete decommissioning and deconstruction of buildings.

“Our services are designed to be particularly beneficial for redevelopment projects, with works planned meticulously and assessed to ensure maximisation of recycling and reuse, for example, where bricks can be salvaged for later use in gardens or curbing,” Tony Donlan continues. “Where items can be retained or refurbished, we will suggest solutions to the client. We also offer a complete demolition service, with the highest specification plant and machinery available for hard demolition.”

UMR provides various remediation packages, including asbestos removal, lead paint remediation and treatment of steel, managing the work from start to finish.

Additional services

UMR has ongoing contracts in the pharma and dairy/food production sectors, where it carries out tank removals, industrial line strip outs, removal of plants rooms and redundant AHUs, etc. Its established expertise in recycling ensures it can provide clients with coveted end-of-waste criteria.

“Our senior team members with experience in construction have seen it all over the years and have unquantifiable knowledge and experience in metals recycling in all its forms,” adds Tony Donlan. “This experience, coupled with our capacity to process and recycle, plays directly into why our demolition service offering is so unique in the market. “With our expertise in recycling and demolition, we can assess the value of the contents in buildings and projects, quickly identifying materials for salvage and recycling. We have the transportation and facilities for processing, as well as access to direct markets. “We work collaboratively with clients and encourage the reuse and repurposing of materials where possible and with all the requisite permits, our ISO 9001 accreditation, and insurances.”

UMR Group’s current and recent clients include Hines, Vision Contracting and John Sisk & Son.

Tony Donlan continues: “More recently, UMR Group has been employing these practices on our own properties. We have purchased some strategically located former industrial and pharmaceutical facilitates throughout Ireland. As we have the unique ability to overcome what others may see as barriers to sale, with our expertise in strip-out and knowledge with regard to environmental rehabilitation, we have been able to turn many of these buildings around with new tenants employing people once more.”

Complete certification

UMR Group offers complete environmental certifications, including certification of recycling resulting from its end-of-waste accredited status, as well as copies of all disposal dockets and complete waste management plans. It also offers certified destruction services to those with commercially sensitive or proprietary waste that needs specific means of disposal. In closing, Eoin Hegarty comments that while construction firms and their clients are currently looking at new methods of construction, they should also be considering all avenues to recycle or reuse materials. “While leaders in the construction industry are looking toward new design and methods of more sustainable construction and many turning to offsite construction methods to achieve lower carbon emissions, they should also be analysing ways in which existing building stock can be reused and future-proofed,” he concludes.

For more details on the United Metals Group’s services, phone: 061 603 848, email: info@umrgroup.ie, or visit www.umrgroup.ie

Click here to read a United Metals Recycling Group Case study where a 98% recycling rate was achieved