Shanks opens multi-million pound MBT in Cumbria

The Hespin Wood MBT has been developed three months ahead of schedule and is the first of two plants to be built under the 25-year public private partnership (PPP) contract, which was signed in June 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Each MBT will have the capacity to handle up to 75,000 tonnes of municipal waste annually, reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill by up to 80%. The council currently deals with 250,000 tonnes of household waste every year, 100,000 tonnes of which are recycled.

However 12.5% of the waste treated at the facility will still end up in landfill as a by-product of the process.

Massive step

Commenting on the opening of the first plant, councillor Tim Knowles, Cumbrias cabinet member for the environment, said: Its a massive step forward for Cumbria. The new MBT plant will revolutionise the way we deal with waste in the north of the country and ensure we have a greener, more cost-effective system of managing rubbish for years to come. Sending large amounts of waste to landfill is quite simply no longer a viable option economically of environmentally.

The official opening follows a series of trials during a testing and commissioning period where trial batches of waste from Carlisle, Allerdale and Copeland were processed.

Process

All waste entering the MBT is sorted, to remove any recyclables, and then shredded. The shredded material is placed in a shredder storage pit where it is then moved to the aerobic fermentation area in which air is circulated through the material allowing for aerobic fermentation to take place. After 12-15 days the material is then passed through a trommel to refine the material, removing any metals, glass and stones. The remainder of the material, known as solid recovered fuel (SRF) will be sent to be burnt to produce energy.

Commenting on the benefits of the project, Ian Goodfellow, managing director of Shanks UK, said: We are pleased that Cumbria county council and its residents can now share the benefits of making more from waste, diverting more material from expensive and harmful landfill to increased recycling and fuel production.

The second MBT facility is currently under construction at Sowerby Woods Business, Barrow (see letsrecycle.com story), and is expected to be fully operational by April 2013.