Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond Visits Agrivert

Foreign Secretary and Runnymede and Weybridge MP Philip Hammond (pictured above, centre) visited Agrivert’s West London anaerobic digestion (AD) facility at Trumps Farm in Surrey last Friday (12 September), to find out how waste is handled in his constituency and how the government’s subsidy regime incentivises the construction of AD facilities.

Run as a joint venture between AD specialist Agrivert and Grundon Waste Management (which has invested £5 million for a 15 per cent stake in the facility), the £11-million West London AD facility – which opened in June – has the capacity to process around 50,000 tonnes of organic waste a year and generate 2.4 megawatts of electricity – enough to supply over 4,500 homes.

After touring the site, Hammond said: “Anaerobic digestion clearly has a part to play in meeting the UK’s renewable energy obligations whilst providing a cost-effective recycling solution for organic wastes. This facility on the Trumps Farm site has been accepted by the local community as far less disruptive than the previously proposed incinerator.”

Harry Waters, Agrivert’s Commercial Director, added: “We were delighted that Philip Hammond made time in his diary to visit the plant. It is important that politicians understand what our sector is contributing to the economy, and the Foreign Secretary was remarkably well briefed and certainly asking the right questions.”

Find out more about Agrivert’s West London AD facility.

Company fined a total of £7,500 for waste offences

Waste management company Alpha Resource Management Ltd has been fined £7,500 at Lisburn Magistrates’ Court for breaches of pollution prevention and control legislation.

The court heard that between June and December 2013, officers from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) investigated breaches of permit conditions relating to groundwater and surface water emissions at the Mullaghglass Landfill Site, a non-hazardous landfill site at owned and operated by Alpha Resource Management.

After a court hearing earlier this week, the company, which has a registered office in Belfast, pleaded guilty to 10 charges of breaching its permit condition relating to exceedences of limits set within their pollution prevention and control permit.

It was fined £750 for each offence plus £40 court costs.

Read more about waste crime in Northern Ireland.

FCC Environment signs waste contract with Wigan Council

Recycling and waste management company FCC Environment has signed a 25-year residual waste contract with Wigan Council.

Under the contract, which starts on 1 April 2015, FCC Environment will process around 80,000 tonnes of residual waste a year for use as refuse-derived fuel (RDF) in UK energy-from-waste facilities. It is estimated that this will divert up to 90 per cent of the borough’s non-recyclable waste away from landfill and save the council approximately £1 million a year.

FCC Environment will also continue to manage the council’s Kirkless transfer station in Ince and three household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) in Atherton, Ince and Leigh, which will all undergo improvement works.

The Leader of Wigan Council, Lord Peter Smith, said: “FCC Environment shares our ambition to maximise recycling and composting, while diverting as much waste as possible from landfill. They also represent best value for money – which will help us to lower our annual revenue expenditure on dealing with municipal waste.”

Richard Belfield, FCC Environment’s Group Development Director, added: “We are delighted to be continuing our partnership with Wigan Council to divert residual waste from landfill for energy generation, although there is still some requirement for landfill.”

Find out more about how Wigan Council intends to boost recycling and reduce residual waste.

R4R conference reveals need for clearer guidance on waste monitoring

The Regions for Recycling (R4R) conference held in Brussels on Wednesday (17 September) found that European cities and regions need ‘clearer guidance on waste monitoring’ and ‘efficient tools’ to improve recycling strategies.

Organised by ACR+ for the R4R project (a three-year European project running from 2012-2014 aimed at improving partners' recycling performances through consistent comparisons and an exchange of good practices), with the support of the Committee of the Regions, the conference looked at the impact of EU waste targets for European regions, the challenges related to the implementation of pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) systems, and possible cost recovery methods for PAYT, such as landfill and incineration taxes and extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes.

The conference found that there are large differences in waste management systems, not just between member states, but also between territories of a country. As such, conference attendees heard how ‘clear guidance’ defining municipal waste and how to monitor it would be welcome.

Focusing on the European Commission’s recently-proposed circular economy programme (which included new waste targets), delegates highlighted that the package would be effective, as long as there is an ‘appropriate framework’ to back it.

R4R involves 13 partners and is co-funded by the INTERREG IVC programme, which provides funding for interregional cooperation as part of the European Regional Development Fund.

Find out more about the R4R conference.