Suez celebrates 1 million tonne milestone at Isle of Man EfW
Suez has now processed more than 1 million tonnes of waste at its energy from waste (EfW) facility on the Isle of Man.
Opened in 2004, the 60,000 tonnes per year capacity facility processes the island’s household and commercial waste. It is the only EfW on the island.
Jon Garrad, Isle of Man EfW plant manager for Suez recycling and recovery UK said: “Surpassing 1,000,000 tonnes is a big milestone for our operations and we’re really proud to play our part in helping to power the Isle of Man through processing its waste effectively and sustainably.
“We’d love to show the facility to more of the island’s residents and give them the opportunity to hear about how the process works, and we look forward to continuing to support the local community and our environment in partnership with the Manx Government.”
Tower Hamlets invests £5m into waste service
Tower Hamlets has announced that it will invest £5 million into its waste services with an additional 72 frontline workers recruited.
This will include additional drivers, sweepers and loaders, alongside new vehicles to tackle the waste emergency declared by the council last year.
While funding is initially for one year, it will be used to identify areas requiring recurring investment moving forward.
Lutfur Rahman, executive mayor of Tower Hamlets, said: “Tower Hamlets is breaking the mould. We are putting our residents first by reinvesting in public services; insourcing services to deliver more opportunities, and investing in other key frontline services that matter such as housing; adult and children’s social care; Universal Free Homecare; young people and our waste service.
“In just 12 months we have managed to turn round a concerning financial situation, into a position of strength and resilience. We have achieved more than our savings target, financial stability with a balanced budget and audited accounts, and we have still found room to invest.”
Oxfordshire highlights ‘innovative recycling technique’ during road maintenance
Oxfordshire county council has published details of a recycling technique it used during road matinenance, which saved “thousands of tonnes” of construction waste.
This technique involves recycling stockpiled road planings and processing them ready to be reused in resurfacing projects.
The top layer of road is removed and recycled into a material known as ‘Foambase’ or cold recycled bound material, which the council said uses 94% of recycled aggregates bound with foamed bitumen and other hydraulic binders.
Agency scorecard highlights risk of missing waste site target
The Environment Agency has published its corporate scorecard for the first quarter of 2023/24, where it has highlighted the risk of missing its waste crime targets.
The ranks a list of targets using a traffic light system, with red meaning the target is at real risk of being missed and green meaning it should be hit.
In the report, the Agency said the number of active high risk illegal waste sites in quarter one decreased by 8 to 167. This falls short of the ceiling target of 164, meaning the quarter ended with an amber status.
However, it said for year end this has ben ranked red, because there is a backlog of reports of illegal waste sites that are awaiting substantiation and as such, the reported figure is likely to be an underestimate.
It added that there are “recognised challenges with recruitment, retention, training and development across almost all regimes and parts of the business that deal with regulation”.
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