The contract – which started on 1 April 2018 – sees Bio Collectors providing a recycling solution for kitchen food waste from WLWA which covers the boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond upon Thames. Further contracts for green waste and other food waste collections are still to be awarded by the Authority.
The kitchen food waste is bulked up within the WLWA area with trailers then taken to the company’s anaerobic digestion processing plant in Mitcham, near Croydon, Surrey where the material is processed. The site also has an in-vessel accelerated biological treatment facility which is permitted to accept up to 100,000 tonnes a year of non-hazardous waste.
The company explains that its Mitcham plant is “the largest independent AD food waste recycling plant in London” processing more than 75,000 tonnes a year.
Sustainable
A spokesman for Bio Collectors said: “We are very pleased to be working with the WLWA, helping them ensure that more of London’s 10 million tonnes of annual food waste is recycled in the most sustainable and environmentally friendly way possible. By processing the food waste through anaerobic digestion rather than incineration or landfill, together we will be able to create more sustainable biogas, electricity and fertiliser for London’s businesses and residents than ever before. ”
Following market engagement WLWA noted that it had developed a strategy to deliver “sustained low cost food waste treatment”.
The authority received six tender submissions. The council has suggested that the new contract benefits from cheaper treatment rates compared to the previous service.
Cost saving
WLWA said: “Bio Collectors Limited offers boroughs an excellent opportunity to increase food waste capture rates from residents and to develop commercial food waste recycling collections, minimising waste and making a cost saving.”
The Award is on a ten-year contract valued at £300,000 per year and has the option of a five year extensions.
West London Composting
In other developments in the WLWA area, West London Composting, based in the borough of Hillingdon, has dropped a planning application to change its In Vessel Composting (IVC) site from handling food and green waste to taking in municipal solid waste fines. The company takes mixed green waste and food waste from a number of boroughs int he WLWA area.
West London Composting had applied to the Environment Agency for a permit variation to treat municipal solid waste (MSW) fines in its existing IVC unit, and compost garden waste in windrows. However, the application was withdrawn towards the end of March.
MSW fines are organic materials leftover from a mechanical biological treatment (MBT) process, where food waste is mixed in with ‘black bag’ residual waste from households. After treatment in an IVC unit, the compost-like material produced from the MSW fines can be used for uses such as restoration projects but will not be suitable for agricultural uses.
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