FORMER Saints star Theo Walcott has kicked off operations at Hampshire's only one-stop recycling centre, at Timsbury.

The ex-Saint - now with Arsenal - and his girlfriend Melanie Slade formally opened the 88-acre recycling and landfill site at Bunny Lane run by RSFS Recycling Ltd and Waltet Materials Ltd.

Showing his green credentials Theo said: "Recycling is essential and we must have more of these establishments so that we can recycle more of our waste as the earth's resources are finite. I was impressed with the large amount of concrete that would normally go into landfill is now being recycled for use as a green alternative for construction use instead of Somerset limestone."

Waltet director Mark Howard pointed out that the site offered a one-stop shop' for construction and demolition waste and household skip rubbish.

"Our advantage here is the scale on which we are working combining recycling and landfill on one site. Seventy-five per cent of the construction waste coming through our gates will be recycled and the remaining residue, which is only inert material, will then go harmlessly into landfill. Every builder's skip will have only a fraction going into landfill now. All paper, wood, metals, plastics - both hard and soft, soil, concrete and brick rubble are now all removed and recycled.

"Not only are we helping Hampshire to meet its recycling targets, but also our investment will extend the life of the current landfill sites available by a factor of four as we are now recycling three-quarters of waste material," said Mark.

The Timsbury material recycling facility is the only one of its type in Hampshire and recycled soil products from the site will go to garden centres and nurseries.

"Our facility is a doorstep facility so people can bring in limestone and other aggregates for processing. Materials are brought in on one lorry and recycled materials go out the gate in the same lorry. This cuts down of fuel consumption, carbon emissions and lorry movements," added 45-year-old Mark, explaining the facilities at Timsbury compliment similar operations across Hampshire.

Ten staff are employed at the Timsbury site and a further 40 at the company's HQ at Nursling.

All the waste - which includes old road materials - that comes into Timsbury site is sorted and graded. The company recycles over200,000 tonnes of road planings alone.

"Waltet has recently acquired an interest in RFSF Recycling as this is where we see the growth in the next two years." said Mark who founded Waltet with fellow director Dan Newbold 10-years ago.

Nicky Salvidge operations director at RFSF - a company started by her father - said: "Romsey is now leading the county in the re-use of waste materials and the process is creating extra employment so this area of Hampshire is actively helping to combat global warming."