The facility, which has been developed in partnership with Scottish and Southern Energy, includes a mechanical biological treatment (MBT) and anaerobic digestion (AD) plant.
It will treat residual waste from around 340,000 households across Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster. The facility is part of a 25-year, £750 million PFI contract which was signed between the joint venture and the three South Yorkshire councils in 2012 (see letsrecycle.com story).
The Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham (BDR) partnership secured £77.4m of funding from central government towards the cost of the new waste facilities.
Under the contract, SSE will take around half of the refuse-derived fuel (RDF) produced at the facility to generate electricity at its new £250 million multi-fuel plant in Ferrybridge, part of a joint venture with Wheelabrator Technologies (see letsrecycle.com story).
The 108MW multi-fuel plant will use a range of feedstock including biomass and RDF, with its first fuel scheduled to be delivered next month.
Some material will also be used on-site at the Rotherham AD plant to produce power and a compost output for land remediation.
First waste
Peter Eglinton, managing director of Shanks’ UK municipal division, said: “As a leading waste-to-product company, we are delighted to be accepting first waste at our BDR facility in Rotherham. The facility will help to make more from the waste produced in the area by increasing recycling, generating green energy and producing compost for land remediation.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the authorities and local residents to increase their diversion from landfill using this genuinely sustainable solution.”
Councillor Roy Miller, chair of the BDR Joint Waste Board, added: “This facility will increase recycling, reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill, make energy from waste and create new jobs. At the same time we will be stepping up our campaign to encourage residents to recycle even more of what they throw away each day.”
Shanks will operate the facility over the duration of the contract until 2040. It has created more than 40 new jobs in the local area and is on schedule to be fully operational in July 2015.
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