A new energy-from-waste (EfW) incineration plant, known as EnviRecover, will soon be under construction in Hartlebury Trading Estate, near Kidderminster.
The facility is being built for Worcestershire County Council and Hereford Council by Mercia Waste Management (Mercia), a subsidiary of waste management company FCC Environment (FCC), and Urbaser Ltd. The facility gained planning permission from the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, in July 2012 following a public inquiry.
Once construction is complete, EnviRecover will treat ‘up to 200,000 tonnes of residual municipal waste a year’ and produce enough electricity to supply approximately 20,000 homes per year.
The construction of the plant, which will involve creating approximately 250 jobs, is expected to take 33 months with the final commissioning of the plant scheduled for ’spring 2017’. Around 45 jobs are expected to be created once operational.
Mercia has said that when its contract with the two councils ends in 2023, the incinerator will be handed over as an ‘asset’ to the local authorities.
A ‘step forward’ in waste management
FCC welcomed the announcement, stating that the construction of EnviRecover is ‘a key part of its long-term strategy to move away from landfill to maximising the value of waste’.
The Chief Executive Officer of FCC Environment, Paul Taylor, said: “This is another step forward in delivering our strategy of owning the waste and maximising the value of the resource through recycling and renewable energy.”
EnviRecover is being hailed as the final part of Herefordshire Council and Worcestershire County Council’s integrated waste management plan to ‘recycle and recover value from municipal waste’.
Indeed, Mercia’s sister company Severn Waste Services, already operates ‘Envirosort’ – a materials recovery facility at Norton in Worcestershire – which processes 100,000 tonnes of waste per year.
Continuing concerns
However, opponents of the EnviRecover incinerator originally voiced concern over the environmental impacts and costs of the EfW facility, as well as whether the plant will have enough feedstock as residual waste levels decline.
Speaking to the BBC last year, Ray Kirby from Worcester residents Against Incineration and Landfill (WAIL) said: "Government waste statistics show recycling is going up, waste to landfill is going down and current incinerator capacity in the West Midlands is more than enough.”
WAIL’s concern mirror those of environmental consultancy Eunomia, which recently released a report claiming that England’s increasing reliance on residual waste facilities (such as incinerators) could see recycling rates ‘limited to 60 per cent’.
Read more about EnviRecover.
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