It is understood that household waste and recyclables (including glass) will be collected in a single grey bin for sorting at what will operate as a “dirty MRF”. Residual material and some other material will be incinerated for energy recovery.
The plant will be built at Crymlyn Burrows in Port Talbot for Bridgend and Neath Port Talbot councils at a cost of 9.2 million although the overall cost of the “high-tech recycling plant” is given by the council at 30 million.
The construction contract has been awarded to Birse Building by the Portuguese turnkey contractor Engenharia e Gestao de Projectos by HLC (Neath Port Talbot) Ltd which has been appointed to carry out the work.
Expected to be ready within two years and employing more than 70 people, the centre will allow for the retrieval of materials for recycling, composting and “other energy recovery schemes” while using fuel prepared from waste to help power the process.
Neath Port Talbot council will maintain a partnership role in the new facility via its Neath Port Talbot Waste Managemenet Company.
At the recent official launch, Noel Crowley, leader of the council, said: “Putting refuse into holes in the ground is no longer an option, we must look for better solutions to waste management. This facility provides a sustainable, economically viable long term way of doing just that.
“It is the council’s intention to work closely with local public interest groups, schools businesses and householders to promote better understanding that the waste e all produce should be treated as a resource.”
First UK project
Horacio Carvalho, chairman of HLC (Neath Port Talbot) Ltd said: “This is our first integrated waste management project in the UK and it demonstrates how a flexible approach can result in an overall recovery rate for the borough of around 70%. We look forward to working with our partners to continue to raise the profile of waste so that everyone understand and contributes to the developments of solutions for the waste we all produce.”
The chairman explained that the contract is for the 25 year treatment and disposal of waste and is PFI compliant. “It will compost/recycle 30% of the waste and, with energy recovery, achieve an overall resource recovery of around 70%. The key to this multi million-pound totally integrated facility is that it takes the wastes not otherwise recycled or composted and produces a prepared fuel called dRDF that feeds the combustion process.”
He continued: “Unlike mass burn incineration, the fuel preparation provides a clean uniform fuel with little or no plastic content, giving a well-controlled burn. The plant will be self sufficient in its electrical and heat energy needs and the small scale process is similar to a boiler house serving a district heating scheme or a hospital.”
Neath Port Talbot, which has a recycling rate of about 6.3%, has carried out kerbside trials using kerbside box collection in about one third of its 52,000 homes.
Material was sorted last year at a transfer station at Giant’s Grave in Port Talbot but the sorting plant has since closed after a landowner wanted the site back.
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