Magherafelt district council, part of the North West Regional Waste Management Group of Northern Irish local authorities, is to use the plant to treat food waste collected through householders' brown bins, which are currently used only for garden waste.
The plant is to be built to meet European and UK standards for the treatment of catering waste, complying with the terms of the Animal By-Products Regulation.
 VCU states that its vertical silos treat catering waste over a seven to 14 day period to European and UK standards |
New Zealand-owned company VCU Technology, through its subsidiary VCU Europa, has won the contract to build the plant and supply its technology, working with UK distributor, Oxfordshire-based OrrTec.
The technology involves vertical silo-style vessels, which composts material over a seven to 14-day cycle. The process sees the material reaching a temperature of 70 degrees centrigrade to comply with European and UK regulations on the composting of catering waste.
John McLaughlin, the council's chief executive, said: “We have chosen an established brand that is already accredited to meet the Animal By-production Regulations. This gives us undoubted confidence that regulatory compliance will be met and this will allow us to move quickly to the forefront in achieving our recycling goals.”
Go-ahead
VCU and OrrTec already have nine sites in operation in the UK and Ireland, ranging in size from 1,000 tonnes annual throughput to a 15,000 tonne capacity site in Lincolnshire. OrrTec was the first company to get the go-ahead from Defra to process compost animal by-product waste commercially at a site in the North of England last year (see letsrecycle.com story).
Commenting on the Magherafelt project, VCU Europa business manager Carl Beck said: “This will be the first site where our technology is being utilised as a double barrier system to meet the UK catering waste regulations. With our proven track record of meeting the European regulations and experience gained from building over 27 sites worldwide, we are ideally and uniquely placed to meet this exciting challenge.
“We expect a lot of interest in the site from other municipal bodies across Europe and look forward to showcasing the site later this year,” he added.
” We have chosen an established brand that is already accredited to meet the Animal By-production Regulations. “
– John McLaughlin, Magherafelt DC
The Magherafelt plant, which already has planning approval for the site near the council offices, will initially process 2,500 tonnes of material each year, but could be expanded. Mr Beck told letsrecycle.com that since the process is modular, which makes expansion relatively easy.
On a global scale, the VCU technology is being used at a plant in Toronto which currently processes about 20,000 tonnes of material each year, and is soon to be expanded to 40,000 tonnes. Mr Beck said that beyond 40,000 tonnes annual capacity, the process would have to be adapted to be viable.
| Related links: |
Margherafelt district council collects about 25,000 tonnes of household waste each year, and is “confident” of recycling 25% of this by 2005/06. The council introduced a blue wheeled bin kerbside recycling service in October 2002, which all 13,500 households can now use to deposit paper, cardboard, plastic bottles and cans.
About 7,000 households also have a brown wheeled bin for garden waste alongside black wheeled bins for normal refuse.
Subscribe for free