A new anaerobic digestion plant that will serve three local authorities (LAs) in South Wales was officially opened yesterday (1 October).

The plant, located at waste management company Amgen Cymru’s Bryn Pica facility in Aberdare, has been designed and developed by Biogen. It has the capacity to recycle 22,500 tonnes of food waste into energy, as well as fertiliser for local farmland.

The three LAs that will provide food waste for the plant – Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil and Newport City – are part of the Tomorrow’s Valley project, which was created to manage food waste in the region sustainably.

Biogen was appointed by the LAs to develop the plant in 2012, with construction starting in June 2014 and finishing in July this year.

The site will take mostly household waste, but will also process commercial and industrial waste streams. The plant is expected to export 1.2 megawatts (MW) of energy to the national grid, enough, the project says, to provide electricity to over 1,500 homes.

The three LAs previously sent collected food waste to a composting company in England and a facility in South East Wales. The creation of the Bryn Pica plant will, they predict, save almost £2 million over the life of its 15-year contract, as well as reducing the councils’ carbon footprint..

Plant ‘will demonstrate benefits of national approach to food waste’

Speaking at the opening of the new plant, Carl Sargeant, Welsh Minister for Natural Resources, said: “Wales is the only country in the UK with a national programme to tackle household food waste – and Bryn Pica will demonstrate the benefits of our approach.

“The Welsh Government has provided over £2 million in funding this project…which has already created jobs in the local community and will now also begin to generate renewable energy.”

Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) spokesperson and Rhondda Cynon Taf Council Leader Andrew Morgan added: “The opening of this exciting and ground breaking project at Amgen Cymru’s Bryn Pica landfill site further emphasises our continued commitment to work towards a more sustainable and environmentally focused future, through innovative and efficient waste, recycling and reuse practices, coupled with the benefits of renewable energy sources and further contributes to the ongoing reduction in carbon emissions.

“The success of the food waste recycling plant will be down to the long-term commitment of the residents in the three local authorities as we strive to not only educate but also to actively encourage everyone to become environmentally-friendly.”

Plant latest boost to recycling in Merthyr

Weekly food waste collections are part of a new recycling service for Merthyr Tydfil Council, launched by Sargeant last month.

The new service, which received a £2-million investment from the Welsh Government, has seen the local authority move from a co-mingled recycling service to a kerbside-sort system.

With a 51 per cent recycling rate, Merthyr is one of only two Welsh LAs yet to hit the Welsh Government’s 2012/13 recycling 52 per cent recycling target. Rhondda Cynon Taf, another of the partners in the Tomorrow’s Valley project, only hit it this March (54 per cent), while Newport is static on 52 per cent.

The Welsh Government has set a target of 70 per cent recycling/composting municipal waste by 2024/25 as part of its ‘Towards Zero Waste’ strategy, with Sargeant commenting: “My ambition is for Wales to become number one in Europe for recycling.”

Find out more about recycling rates in Wales.