Nappy recycling firm Knowaste has said it believes its planned facility in the Midlands - the first in the UK - will be profitable despite problems securing feedstock for some of its facilities in other countries.

The comments came as the company announced that the plant, which was set to be build at Tyseley, near Birmingham, would now be developed on an industrial site near West Bromwich in order to speed up progress - with trials expected to begin in April 2010.

Knowaste's first ever nappy recycling facility was a demonstrator project and began operating in Mississaugua, Ontario in 2000. However, the company explained that this was currently being moved to a secret location in Europe because it could not compete with the cheap price of landfill space of North America.

Lynette Pierce, Knowaste's marketing director, said that the company was focusing its attentions on developing sites in Europe and the UK because the "environmental attitude is right and the political will is here for these types of facilities."

In addition to moving its demonstrator facility, Knowaste was also forced to close its Arnhem facility in Holland in 2007 after it did not run at capacity due to problems getting feedstock across the border from Germany. It also faced competition from two incinerators built close by.

Knowaste said it elected to close the facility and spend its cash developing plants in the UK instead - where it was confident of success.

A spokeswoman said: "The Knowaste technology has evolved a lot since then and in Birmingham there shouldn't be the cross-border issues as experienced in Arnhem and with the gasification unit, the cost of processing will be a lot less, making the plant more profitable."

UK

Commenting on its UK plans, the company acknowledged that the economic downturn had slowed progress (see letsrecycle.com story) but said that it expected progress to speed up with the move to the West Bromwich site.

Ms Pierce, explained that, while it had permission for the nappy processing aspect of the operations at Tyseley, gaining planning approval for the energy generation part of the project there would have taken a long time.

However, the West Bromwich site already has planning permissions in place for a waste and energy facility as it was previously used for pallet recycling.

"We are hoping to begin trials in April next year and once the trials are successful we will go fully operational with the nappy recycling. The energy side of this is supposed to follow on from this about six months later," she told letsrecycle.com.

The company has now teamed up with London-based energy from waste company, Verus, who will be tasked with building, running and handling the energy side of the process - using gasification to turn the waste into energy.

Autoclaves

Knowaste has also increased the range of waste it will be able to treat at the site to include feminine hygiene products and incontinence products used by people with communicable diseases or undergoing chemotherapy. This has been made possible with the addition of autoclaves to its nappy recycling process that can sterilise the material.

Roy Brown, chief executive of Knowaste, commented: " We are delighted that within nine months of our doors opening next spring, as well as helping divert from landfill the 750,000 tonnes of nappy waste thrown away each year, we will also be generating renewable energy.

"Of equal importance is that locating to a ‘ready-made' site has allowed us to concentrate our resources and energies on refining the Knowaste process and to this end, extending the line of materials that can be recycled. With the feminine hygiene market in the UK worth £298m a year, this presents further opportunities for local authorities and specialist collection companies," he added.

Feedstock

Up to 800,000 tonnes of disposable nappies are sent to landfill in the UK every year and in January 2009, Knowaste revealed it had a deal in place with West Midlands' waste management company Alpha Wastecare, to provide a feedstock of nappies and incontinence products from the region's hospitals for the site (see letsrecycle.com story).

And, despite the change in the proposed facility's location, the company said this deal was still in place, while it was also hoping to develop contracts with cleaning contractors to source feminine hygiene waste.

Ms Pierce claimed that collecting the material did not add any extra burden to hospitals because Knowaste's research has shown that the majority already collect these items separately.

Knowaste has also said that it wants to work with councils to help develop domestic collections, with Ms Pierce explaining that nappies were a problem for many households because they quickly cause the bin to fill up.

And, she revealed that the company was considering providing bring banks in strategic places to facilitate domestic collection.

According to the spokeswoman for the Canadian-based firm, Hounslow, Hillingdon and Lambeth councils were among seven London local authorities to attend an event it held last week (October 27) to explore the potential to build a recycling facility in London.

She added: "Further meetings will be held with some of the councils, but we're not in a position to say more than that at this stage."

Gate fees

Ms Pierce said that the company aimed to be "economically viable" in terms of the gate fees it would charge for councils, nursing homes and other providers of waste nappies, but that it did have a "minimum threshold".

"Our gate fees will depend on the market but we do have a minimum threshold," she explained. "We are trying to be the economic and environmental alternative. We won't be able to charge less than landfill or incineration but we do not want to be much more."

In February 2008, Knowaste said it had plans to invest £20 million in three UK facilities (see letsrecycle.com story). The company said it eventually intended to build 20 plants across Europe