New Earth to treat residual waste for Welsh councils

The deal with Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen county borough councils, which has an option to be extended to run for a further eight years, sees waste treated at the firms MBT facility south of Bristol.

The councils began sending residual waste to the 200,000 tonne capacity MBT facility, which also houses an energy recovery plant, earlier this month.

Waste treated at New Earths mechanical biological treatment (MBT) facility is sorted to remove recyclables, as well as producing a compost-like output and a refuse derived fuel (RDF) which will be burned to produce energy in the thermal treatment plant, located adjacent to the MBT facility.

New Earth estimates that around 80% of the waste sent for treatment at the Avonmouth plant will be treated on site, but the remainder which will not be suitable for treatment, will be sent for landfill.

Delivery

Commenting on the contract award, councillor Keith Hayden, executive member for environment at Blaenau Gwent county borough council, said: We look forward to working with New Earth over the coming years to deliver this contract and we are also extremely pleased to have been able to deliver this procurement as a collaborative project and look forward to working together over the next few years to jointly manage the delivery of this contract.

The Avonmouth MBT plant was opened in September 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story) and also treats waste on behalf of Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol City, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire councils.

Richard Brooke, New Earths commercial director, said: New Earth is delighted to have been awarded this residual waste treatment and disposal contract from Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen county borough councils. The majority of the residual waste will be treated at New Earths Avonmouth facility which will deliver recycling, landfill diversion and carbon benefits for the councils.

Its a particularly exciting time for New Earth and its customers as refuse derived fuel produced by the Avonmouth MBT facility is being used to recover renewable and low carbon energy in an adjacent new plant using New Earth Advanced Thermal (NEAT) technology.

Research carried out by letsrecycle.com earlier this year showed that the Avonmouth facility was among the highest performing MBT plants in the UK, with a landfill diversion rate of around 69% in 2011/12 (see letsrecycle.com story).