The plant, which will take sorted household waste from Tower Hamlets council, and has won approval to build the plant from the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation.
” The (autoclave) process recycles and recovers up to 80% of the input “
– Cleanaway spokesman
About 160,000 tonnes of waste will be dealt with by the 20 million facility every year, which Cleanaway claims will give Tower Hamlets a recycling rate of 75-80%.
Tower Hamlets currently has one of the lowest recycling rates in the country, but is hindered by the fact that 80% of its residencies are multiple occupancy buildings such as high-rise flats.
Ideally the council would benefit from any kind of technology that would see it able to collect recyclables in one container without too much separation effort.
Diversion
The process proposed by Cleanaway will see steam used to sterilise the waste and reduce its volume. The main by-product of the process is a sterile flake – floc – which can be re-used in different ways – including the production of board and paper.
A Cleanaway spokesman said: “I think that these days most people know that government targets for recycling and diverting biologically active waste away from landfill will not be met just by householders separating out their recyclables.
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“Further treatment of some sort is needed and this is what our autoclave process does – in a clean way, which is not incineration. The process recycles and recovers up to 80% of the input,” he added.
Tower Hamlets recycled 7% of its waste in 2004/05, it has been set a recycling target of 18% for 2005/06 – with figures expected to be announced soon. The first delivery of waste to the site is expected from Tower Hamlets at the beginning of 2008 – by which time it will be aiming for a recycling rate of 20%. Any delay on the plant being built could see Tower Hamlets missing its 2007/08 recycling target.
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