According to Shanks, the 180,000 tonnes per year capacity plant is now accepting all contracted waste from the East London Waste Authority (ELWA), and the firm expects to reopen the plant’s third line in June, for the treatment of commercial waste, before operations are fully restored in “early 2016”.
The fire on August 4 2014 affected around 2,500 tonnes of waste inside the reception hall of line one of the facility on Creek Way in Rainham. It was almost three months before the facility partially reopened (see letsrecycle.com story).
12 firefighters and 81 fire engines attended at the height of the blaze and smoke could be seen for miles around.
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A spokesman for Shanks said last week (May 1): “We are pleased that despite the fire we are accepting all contracted waste and are excited to be reopening the third line of the Frog Island MBT in June, with an expectation to have the site fully operational in early 2016.”
East London
The ELWA said in October 2014 that around 4,000 tonnes per month of East London’s waste was being sent to landfill after the Frog Island blaze, and that resuming full operations would likely “take over 12 months” (see letsrecycle.com story).
Some waste from East London has also been sent to Shanks’ other 180,000 tonnes per year capacity MBT plant at nearby Jenkins Lane in Newham, as both Shanks facilities serve a 25-year residual waste contract signed in 2002 with the ELWA, which includes the borough councils of Havering, Newham, Redbridge and Barking & Dagenham.
However, ELWA managing director Mark Ash told letsrecycle.com that the Authority has had full access to the Frog Island plant since November 2014 and that waste was therefore no longer being landfilled.
Mr Ash said information on the overall tonnage sent to landfill last year after the fire would be included in the Authority’s end-of-year reconciliation report, which will be presented to the borough councils at the end of June 2015.
He added that the fire was likely to have impacted more on Shanks’ commercial contractors than the ELWA as the Authority’s waste “took priority right from the start”.
Damage
Neither the precise cause nor the resulting costs of the damage caused by the fire are yet known and the release of the insurer’s report on the incident has been delayed due to the need for flooring to be removed at the facility to assess the material which is thought to have sparked the fire.
It is thought that the fire is likely to have been caused by flammable material getting into the waste stream, but Mr Ash said that it is unlikely that the exact cause will ever be discovered.
ELWA has around 12 years to run on its contract with Shanks, and Mr Ash said that MBT “still has a role to play” in waste management as the “20-30% moisture loss” such treatment provides, combined with relatively fewer issues in securing planning for such facilities, meant that it was a financially preferable solution in comparison to EfW.
He said: “If you don’t have significant tonnage to warrant EfW (energy from waste) then MBT is slightly cheaper.”
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