In all, construction work is currently underway at 14 of the sites being developed as part of the project.
Commenting on the planning success, the chair of the GMWDA, councillor Neil Swannick, said: “We are delighted to have secured all 23 planning applications for our facilities in Greater Manchester, this is an incredible success, especially within this timeframe, this shows strong commitment and excellent partnership.”
The facilities which have received planning approval are:
• six waste transfer stations to receive both recyclable and residual waste;
• two green waste shredding facilities to prepare green waste for transfer to composting facilities;
• four in-vessel composting facilities, which are being developed by sub-contractor TEG Composting (see letsrecycle.com story);
• a materials recycling facility (MRF);
• seventeen household waste recycling centres, including a “major overhaul” of the current network and proposed new sites;
• five mechanical biological treatment facilities with anaerobic digestion technology;
• the thermal power station being developed by chemicals firm Ineos Chlor at Runcorn in Cheshire which will burn up to 850,000 tonnes-a-year of refuse-derived fuel from the Greater Manchester area using combined heat and power technology (see letsrecycle.com story).
The GMWDA praised the “strong communications” it had had with Viridor-Laing during the “challenging” planning application process for the sites, and claimed that the 100% approval success had come in “record time”.
Once the facilities are up and running, the authority and Viridor-Laing, who finally signed the 25-year, PFI-funded deal in April 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story), are aiming to work towards reduce waste to landfill by 75% and achieve a 50% recycling and composting rate.
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