Premier Waste has admitted that it is being forced to send more municipal waste to landfill while it tests improvements to its aerobic digestion plant in County Durham.

Premier Waste's aerobic digester is being re-commissioned following improvements

The company, which is owned by Durham county council, halted the processing of waste at its Thornley-based Premier Advanced Recycling Centre (PARC) last month, after the Environment Agency ordered the firm to send 10,000 tonnes of the digester's output to landfill (see letsrecycle.com story).

The Agency had expressed concerns over the amount of glass and plastic contained within the compost-like-output (CLO), as well as indicating that the material had not been processed at a high enough temperature to allow it to be used safely in landfill restoration.

Prior to March's developments, the PARC had processed waste from a number of nearby local councils, including City of Durham, South Tyneside, Sedgefield and Easington.

Now, with the aerobic digester out of operation, a spokeswoman for Premier Waste has admitted to letsrecycle.com that "the waste is all being landfilled, unfortunately".

She added that the CLO already produced by the digester, which the Agency had ordered the company to send to landfill, "had all been landfilled by the middle of last week".

Improvements 

In the wake of the agency's decision the company outlined specific plans to re-engineer the plant, with particular attention being paid to improvements to the segregation of materials and the heating of the output.

Commenting on the progress of that work, the spokeswoman said: "All the work has been done but the PARC is now being re-commissioned and it's going through testing with the Environment Agency and Defra to get things back on track".

However, she was unable to reveal a definite schedule for when the digester would be able to recommence processing the 20,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste that it previously dealt with annually.

Explaining that Premier Waste is working closely with both the Agency and Defra, she revealed that "it will take as long as it takes" in order to satisfy the needs of both bodies before the plant begins accepting waste again."

Speaking to letsrecycle.com, a spokeswoman for the Environment Agency explained that the Agency was working closely with Premier Waste and "still checking their progress".