Viridor breaks ground on 10m Somerset AD plant

The plant will be the firms first AD facility in the South West, and will be located at its Walpole landfill site. The Somerset Waste Board agreed in September 2011 to develop the facility (see letsrecycle.com) and the plant is expected to be operational by April 2013.

Capacity

The facility- which will cost around 10 million – will have the capacity to process up to 30,000 tonnes of food waste per year, 20,000 tonnes of which will be provided by the Somerset Waste Partnership, which includes all six of Somersets councils. The remaining 10,000 tonnes of capacity will be used to process waste from restaurants, catering firms, pubs, shops and other businesses in the local area.

The plant will also produceone megawatt of power, enough to supply more than 1,700 homes.

Patrick Murray, Viridors regional manager, said: This is a fantastic development for Somerset that will help divert even more waste from landfill and increase recycling rates.
Working with Somerset Waste Partnership we will process 20,000 tonnes of food waste collected from residents across the county. The remaining capacity will be filled from food waste we collect from local businesses.

The plant will also provide some excellent employment opportunities with 20 jobs during the construction phase and six full-time positions when the plant starts operating in April 2013.

Deal

Viridor committed to build the anaerobic digestion (AD) facility under part of its long-term contract to manage Somersets waste, which began in 2006 and runs until March 31 2022 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Somerset Waste Board chairman Councillor Derek Yeomans said: Somerset residents are working hard with us maximise the weekly food collections and keep this valuable resource out of landfill. The next step, working with our partner Viridor, is to create clean, green renewable power right here in Somerset for the local grid.

The new AD facility will also save taxpayers around 1 million over the next five years so its a genuine win on both environmental and economic grounds. Wed like to encourage all residents to use the scheme if they are not already, as the more we can process, the bigger the benefits.”