SITA targets food waste in South-West London

Stakeholders and local residents were invited to events held last Friday and Saturday (December 5 and 6) to view the company's proposals for a major redevelopment of its Mitcham transfer station site in the London borough of Merton.

The plans would also involve a significant downsizing of the site's waste transfer operations – from 200,000 tonnes to 20,000 tonnes – and the development of a new education and visitor centre on site.

Commercial

Speaking to letsrecycle.com, Adrian Clarke, SITA UK's general manager for treatment and disposal in the South-East, explained that the redevelopment would reflect the fact that research undertaken for the project by London Remade had revealed that “the real potential is for commercial food waste”.

And, the company's Mitcham business manager, Paul Stirling, said that the process had already begun of going out and looking for commercial contracts to provide feedstock for the planned AD facility.

Commenting on the plans, Mr Clarke said: “If our proposal is approved, we will transform this dated site into a modern eco-park.

“We have described it as an eco-park because all the waste management activity we are proposing on the site is sustainable and education for members of the public will play a key role in the development,” he added.

Reduction

If completed, the revamp of the site would see an overall reduction in the amount of waste it handles every year – from around 274,000 tonnes to 220,000 tonnes – and SITA UK has also said that traffic will be reduced at the site with the development of an on-site waste water treatment facility.

Mr Clarke explained a further reduction in traffic would come with gas from the AD process being used to produce electricity on site, adding that “it could produce combined heat and power, its there as an option to do that”.

And, planning manager Jane Williams said that “the facility will be self-sufficient with energy – the surplus can go to the National Grid”.

Sutton

SITA UK's plans for the site – which currently processes commercial waste from throughout the South-West London area and household recyclables from the neighbouring London borough of Sutton – envisage a two-stage redevelopment.

Within two years of securing planning approval, the company hopes to complete the extension of the MRF, demolish and decontaminate an oil works adjacent to the existing transfer station which it purchased in February 2008, and to begin environmental improvements around the site.

The second phase of the project, which would take place over a four-year period, would involve the demolition of the existing transfer station and the building of the AD and IVC facility, as well as completing environmental improvements.

Mr Clarke explained that the two-stage plan was necessary because, “we need to manage the development because if we close the site, where's the waste going to go?”

This would also involve the use of its nearby transfer station at Weir Road in Wimbledon, which the company plans to develop from an open-air facility to an enclosed site.

Last week's open days followed an earlier public consultation on the plans, held in April 2008, which influenced the exact nature of the improvements SITA UK proposes to make to the surrounding area such as pathways and landscaping.