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British recycling and waste management company From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cory is a recycling and waste management company based in London. Originally founded as William Cory & Son in 1896, the company has operated vessels on the River Thames for more than 125 years, transporting a range of commodities and materials including coal, oil, aggregates and waste. Ships from Cory's fleet supported Britain's war efforts in both world wars, with 30 ships being lost during the conflicts. From the 1980s onwards, the business has become increasingly focused on waste management.
Cory's site footprint spans the length of the Thames from Wandsworth in the west to Gravesend in the east.[1] The company operates:
In 2020, Cory received planning permission to build another EfW facility adjacent to the existing one in Belvedere.[3] The company is also developing a district heat network at Belvedere with Vattenfall.[4]
In 2021, Cory announced plans for one of Europe's largest Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) facilities in Belvedere,[5] with a planning application for the facility following in late 2023.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] The proposed development was expected to take up to 11.7% of the 25.5 hectares of land at the adjacent Crossness Nature Reserve. A campaign group and petition was established in December 2023 to oppose the development.[15][16] The petition generated 2,790 signatures. In June 2024, the campaign group sought to raise £8000 to fight the plans.[17]
The company was founded in London in 1896 as William Cory and Son Ltd.[18] Cory was formed from the merger of eight companies in the coal trade and had a comprehensive business in transporting and supplying five million tonnes of coal per year to trade and domestic customers in London.[18] Cory had a fleet of 2,500 railway wagons and also operated lighters on the River Thames.[18] Rather than operate its lighters unladen on their return journeys from delivering coal, Cory used them to carry refuse from London to be dumped in the marshlands of Essex and Kent.[18]
After the turn of the 20th century, Cory started to provide social housing for some of its workforce.[19]
Cory ships had brown upper works above hull level.[20] The funnel was black with a broad white band, and a large black diamond on the white band.[20][21] The house flag was red with a large white or cream diamond in the middle.[21]
In World War I Cory mobilised as D Company, 6th Battalion of The Buffs (commonly known as Cory's Unit) and many died fighting in France.[27] It also mobilised its boats in support of the war effort, losing 17 ships during the war:
During the war Cory bought R. and J.H. Rea, which both expanded its tug, barge and coastal collier fleets but also gave Cory a presence in the ports of Bristol and Southampton.[19] After the war Cory expanded further; buying the Mercantile Lighterage Company in 1920, followed by Mellonie and Goulder of Ipswich and several other companies in 1928.[19]
In the Second World War fuel supplies were vital to the war effort.[50] Cory colliers sailed in coastal convoys and 13 of them were lost.[50]
The Second World War was not the end of Cory's losses at sea.
After the war, Cory began mining the stone needed for aggregates to rebuild parts of London and putting them on empty barges.[27] The holes left in the ground became landfills in Erith and East Tilbury.[27] This was the start of Cory's transition from moving fuel to transporting waste and building materials.
During the post-war period, Cory also began transporting fuel oil as well as coal following the introduction of the Clean Air Act in 1956.[27] By the 1950s Cory was transporting and supplying fuel oil as well as coal.[50] In 1956 Cory started to develop a fleet of barges designed specifically to carry refuse rather than coal.[19] Cory had its own barge-building yard, which produced more than 400 such vessels between 1962 and 1972.[50] Oil-fired central heating grew in popularity such that by 1972 Cory was supplying 216 million imperial gallons (980 megalitres) per year to domestic customers.[50]
In the 1960s and 1970s William Cory was operating general and refrigerated road haulage out of Palmers Wharf, Deptford. The colours were white with the black lozenge. Later on it was taken over by Ocean and renamed McGregor Cory Cargo Services and the vehicles became red. They gradually got involved with the emerging container traffic and worked for OCL who were taking over refrigerated imports from New Zealand and Australia. As containers were mostly arriving in Tilbury docks, MCCS moved to Thurrock and Barking, Essex. This was the final end of the link with Deptford.
In 1972 Ocean Group plc bought Cory,[50] which then acquired Surridge, which owned Mucking Marshes Landfill, then the second-largest landfill site in the UK. In 1979 Cory bought Thames and General Lighterage, making Cory the largest waste carrier on the Thames.[50] In the 1980s Cory withdrew from coal and oil distribution to concentrate on waste transport and disposal.[65] In 1981 two Cory group companies were merged to form Cory Waste Management.[65][27] It won a tender to transport and dispose of half a million tonnes of waste a year for the Greater London Council.[27] This saw the launch of the containerised waste transportation business that operates today.[27] Cory Environmental Municipal Services Ltd was formed in 1989 and the two companies were merged as Cory Environmental in 1990.[65] At this stage, London was producing 29 million tonnes of waste per year and disposing only 400,000 tonnes of it within its own boundaries.[27] By the late 1990s, Mucking landfill site was receiving 1.5 million tonnes of London's waste.[27]
In 1997 Cory Environmental grew by buying Local Authority Waste Disposal Companies from Essex County Council and Gloucestershire County Council. In 1999 Cory bought Parkhill Reclamation, increasing Cory's presence in the West Midlands and North West England.[65] Since 2000, Cory's operations have focused on waste management.[27] It signed a long-term contract with London's Western Riverside Waste Authority in 2002, which included the development of an 84,000 tonnes-per-annum materials recycling facility in Wandsworth.
In 2000 Ocean Group plc merged with NFC plc to form Exel plc, which in 2005 sold Cory Environmental to Montagu Private Equity.[66] In March 2007 Montagu sold Cory to a consortium of investors consisting of ABN Amro Global Infrastructure Fund, Finpro SGPS and Santander Private Equity.[66]
In 2010, Mucking stopped receiving London's waste and was later reclaimed for community and environmental use to create the Thurrock Thameside Nature Discovery Park.[27]
In 2012, Cory Environmental was awarded an eight-year contract to provide the waste collection services throughout the county of Cornwall, and opened the Riverside 1 energy from waste (EfW) facility, one of the UK's largest EfW facilities, in Belvedere, Kent.[27] In 2020, Cory secured planning permission to develop the Riverside Energy Park.
In June 2015, it was announced that Biffa had bought the Cory waste collection business, Cory Environmental Municipal Services Limited, for £13.5 million. In 2016, the company was rebranded as Cory Riverside Energy. In 2017, the business completed a major restructure and refinance, having sold its collections, waste brokerage and landfill businesses,[27] and in 2021 it was rebranded simply as Cory.[67]
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