The Environment Agency has confirmed that it is trialling the use of drones to monitor waste sites from the air.
The regulator’s Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire enforcement team has been using the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service’s (GMFRS) remote controlled AIR (Aerial Imagery Reconnaissance) unit since the summer to scout for signs of fire in sites.
As well as having the ability to take pictures and video, the drone can also detect elevated heat sources within waste piles. As waste degrades high temperatures can be created, meaning that fires are common occurrences at waste sites. In 2013, a recycling plant in Kidderminster burned for almost two months after ‘several thousand tonnes’ of mixed recyclable materials caught on fire, costing £250,000 to fight and clean up.
The drone can identify those areas within the pile that are at a higher risk of self-igniting and have the potential to cause fire. The Environment Agency is working with the fire service to identify high-risk fire sites to ensure that waste is handled safely.
Other uses for drones
The Environment Agency’s use of the drone is not the first instance of the technology being used in waste management.
In an interview for Resource 81, Andrew Blogg, Co-founder and Head of Mapping and Surveying at drone company Future Aerial Innovations, explained how drones are commonly used to monitor topographical structure and composition of landfill, as required by the Landfill Directive.
He said: “The results are very similar, in that you wind up with information on the height of the landfill, but it does mean that you don’t have to set foot onto the landfill site itself. And the other main benefit from it is that we can pick up a lot more information. We can pick up millions of points on the landfill to give a much more accurate height calculation and volume calculation as well.”
As well as surveying sites, drones have either been used, or are being tested for use, in monitoring oceanic plastic waste, measuring methane emissions from landfills and removing hazardous waste from sites.
You can read more about the use of drones in waste management in our cover feature from Resource 81.
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