Waste management firm SITA UK has submitted plans to develop the UKs first waste plastic-to-diesel plant at Avonmouth near Bristol.
The 6,000 tonne-a-year capacity facility would sit alongside its proposed 100,000 tonne-a-year capacity gasification facility and a 40,000 tonne-a-year capacity material recycling facility on Kings Weston Lane in the industrial area on the outskirts of the South West city.
This marks the first development to reach the planning stages as part of SITAs exclusive agreement with Irish plastic-to-diesel specialists Cynar. The deal, which was signed in November 2010, aims to deliver 10 waste plastic-to-fuel plants across the UK (see letsrecycle.com story).
The types of plastic that would be used to produce diesel are those that cannot be recycled such as yoghurt pots, food trays and bale-wrap from farms. SITA UK said that the diesel produced would provide enough fuel to run Bristol city councils current refuse and recycling collection fleet of vehicles six times over.
It is expected that the so-called End-of-Life Plastics-to-Diesel facility (ELPD) would produce around 4.2 million litres of specification diesel each year from 6,000 tonnes of end-of-life plastic, with 2,000 tonnes of feedstock drawn from non-recyclable plastics sorted by the MRF.
SITA UK submitted proposals for the plant to Bristol city council last month (April 26). This was alongside seeking permission to double the capacity of its proposed materials recycling facility (MRF) to 80,000 tonnes-a-year.
Planning
Planning permission is already in place for the gasification plant and the original proposal for MRF. It is expected that the SITA proposals would generate 125 new jobs in the region.
Commenting on the latest proposals, Gareth Phillips, planning manager at SITA UK, said: These are exciting plans that will put Avonmouth at the forefront of the very latest in resource management technology.
Producing a valuable commodity like diesel and increasing the capacity of the recycling facility will enable us to put waste to good use and save it from going to landfill. It also makes sense to locate these facilities together on one site so we can reduce the transportation of the recycling material.
SITA UK is holding a public drop-in session at the Avonmouth Community Centre Hall on Monday 9 May between 3.00pm and 7.30pm for members of the community to find out more about the proposal.
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