One of the most advanced recycling and waste centres in Europe was officially opened in the London borough of Southwark yesterday (April 16) by broadcaster and environmentalist, Kate Humble.
The 60m facility is operated by Veolia Environmental Services in partnership with Southwark Council as part of its 25 year PFI recycling and waste contract.
The new state-of-the-art Integrated Waste Management Facility on the former Old Kent Road gas works site is now handling all of Southwarks recycling and household waste, typically 120,000 tonnes a year.
The facility contains Londons first inner-city Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) plant which, after the further removal of some recyclables, turns the remainder into solid recovered fuel for energy recovery.
The large site also contains a materials recovery facility (MRF) which sorts all materials collected for recycling from Southwark households, allowing residents to place all of their recycling in one container.
Presorting
The MBT facility, which is still being commissioned, has three presorting lines with oversize material rejected from the process. Two sizes are collected, under 80mm and over 80mm with the smaller fraction of the waste containing more organics and dried before mechanical sorting. This takes place in a WTT process along the lines of in-vessel composting.
About 350 tonnes of material is placed in each tunnel for about 8-12 days to compost with an estimated 20% moisture loss. The gas emitted is cleaned through the use of a bark biofilter.
The MRF, which includes OKLM equipment and Titech sorters, has successfully passed the commissioning stage and includes disc screens which are the first stage of the sorting process to sort paper, cardboard and glass from the other materials. Despite the high use of technology, hand sorting is still important within the facility to confirm quality.
Kate Humble hosted the opening event and spent time with children from Pilgrims Way Primary School in the sites education centre. This includes a working model of the Materials Recovery Facility to help children learn about what happens to recyclables after they are collected from their homes.
Ms Humble said: The need to recycle has led to some great innovations and inventions. Ive been very impressed with what Ive seen here, both in terms of the technology being used and the way the facility has been adapted to fit into the local environment.
Habitat
She added: This facility has given me tremendous heart. It is an industrial building which has helped preserve our natural environment and habitat. Our waste has a huge impact on our environment.
Noting that landfill capacity is running out, Ms Humble went on to describe the process at the facility as being quite exceptional.
She also highlighted the importance of biodiversity. This is an important word and means our planet is healthy and functioning well. This may not look like the perfect slice of biodiversity but a lot of thought has gone in to nature here, with trees, shrubs, bat boxes and solar panels. I hope this inspires other councils in London and in the country to be brave if they do, we will be on to a planet that has a future.
Councillor Peter John, leader ofSouthwark Council, said: “Today is an important milestone for the borough. The technology behind recycling and waste collection is taking a huge leap forward with this new site, but perhaps more important are the benefits to the man and woman in the street. Not only does it allow them to recycle more types of material than before but it takes away the need to sort. The sites ability to divert rubbish from landfill and turn it into fuel, are both great achievements for Southwark and should benefit residents as well.
Street level
And, Cllr John said the borough,for street level properties, had now reached 50% recycling. With the commingled solution provided by Veolia this will mean that recycling rates in other homes, largely flats, could now increase,allowing Southwark to achievean overall recycling rate of 40% by 2014.
Cllr Johnwent on to praise Veolia for its cooperation in the tough times we and other local authorities are facing. You have been exceptionally helpful in making efficiencies and I want to pay tribute to them.
Jean-Dominique Mallet, Veolia ES chief executive officer said the PFI process for Southwark was one of the fastest the company had seen and he preside those involved, including Southwark Defra and WIDP.
He continued: “I am exceptionally proud of what we have achieved in partnership with Southwark Council and its residents with this ground-breaking development packed with advanced technologies at a landmark location.
“This facility includes our first MBT plant in the UK and takes inner city recycling and treatment to a new level by providing a completely integrated sustainable waste management solution on one site.
Construction was by VolkerFitzpatrick.
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