Mercia submits plans for £120m Worcester EfW
The waste firm, which outlined proposals for the plant in November 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story) undertook a public consultation and community engagement activities before submitting the plans to Worcestershire county council. The proposed facility, known as EnviRecover, is expected to produce 15 MW of renewable energy if and when it becomes fully operational. The firm is the waste contractor for Worcestershire county and Herefordshire councils under a long-term PFI contract, signed in December 1998, which saw it open a £10 million materials recycling facility in Worcester in March (see letsrecycle.com story).
John Plant, one of Mercia's directors, said: “The team behind EnviRecover has worked extremely hard and diligently over the past two years to ensure that our proposal is appropriate for the two counties. By engaging early with the public, we have received valuable input from individuals and organisations which has helped to shape our final application.”
Go-ahead for Surrey IVC facility welcomed
Bournemouth-based consultancy Terence O'Rourke acted on behalf of property company Wharf Land (Jersey) Ltd when it appealed after Surrey county council failed to determine its original application, which was made in July 2008, for the Wisley facility. Terence O'Rourke prepared an Environmental Statement for the planning inquiry, using a team of experts to satisfy the Secretary of State, the Environment Agency and Natural England that the composting process would exceed best practice guidelines and would not pose a significant risk to key sites nearby.
The company's director, Ann Bartaby, said: “We are delighted to have been able to assist Wharf Land achieve planning permission for a contentious waste stream in a sensitive location. At the inquiry we set out ground-breaking evidence that will be of great value for other waste schemes.” A spokeswoman for Terence O'Rourke added that Wharf Land was now likely to enter into an arrangement with a waste management company to develop the facility, which could potentially deal with local authority and/or commercial waste.
Sainsbury's targets milk packaging reduction
Retail giant Sainsbury's has predicted that a switch away from traditional milk cartons to milk bags could help it reduce the amount of packaging it uses by 1.4 million kilograms a year.
In a bid to cut packaging waste across its stores, Sainsbury's has turned its focus cutting waste around its milk cartons and bottles and the firm claims that sales of milk bags – in plastics pouches – are currently at around 110,000 bags a week. The supermarket chain claims that this switch could potentially save up to 1.4 million kilograms of packaging each year. In order to further the uptake of the bags, Sainsbury's is holding a giveaway this week (May 15) of its JUGIT containers – which are used to hold milk bags for pouring.
Emma Metcalf-King, Sainsbury's senior dairy buyer, said: “When we first launched milk bags in store, we gave one to every colleague to try. Their feedback was so positive that we wanted to do something to encourage our customers to give it a whirl too. Milk bags are a great way for us to help the environment and when you can pick one up in store for free, they're a great way to help the family budget too.”
Axion calls on partners for Scottish plastics fund
The fund, which was originally launched in January 2009, is intended to help develop plastics sorting and reprocessing capacity in Scotland and underwent a further call for bidders to come forward in March (see letsrecycle.com story). Axion expects to focus on assisting materials recycling facilities (MRFs), waste management companies or similar organisations with technical advice on how to improve their existing plastic recycling or sorting operations. The deadline for applicants to the fund, which is being managed by Zero Waste Scotland, is the end of August 2010.
Keith Freegard, director at Axion, said: “The idea is to help firms go from an idea to a fully-delivered project. We're not proposing to be players in the household plastics recycling arena; merely providers of know-how, knowledge, project management and engineering.”
Cumbria hosts European visitors to discuss EfW
Cumbria county council last week played host to delegates from across Europe to share ideas and help develop new approaches to energy recovery from waste.
The three-day visit, which took place from May 5 to May 7, was part of the European Union's ‘Innovations & Environment Regions of Europe Sharing Solutions' programme and involved presentations, as well as a visit to Shanks Waste Management's mechanical biological treatment (MBT) facility in Dumfries, Scotland. Cumbria is working with Shanks to develop two MBTs in the region under its long-term, £720 million waste PPP contract (see letsrecycle.com story). The visit involved delegates from Italy, Sweden, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania.
Martin Allman, Cumbria county council's waste prevention manager, said: “We're delighted to be welcoming delegates to Cumbria from around Europe to show how we deal with waste now, how we reduce, reuse and recycle with our partners from the district councils as part of Cumbria Strategic Waste Partnership and what we're planning to do in the future with Shanks Waste Management.”
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