Waste treatment technology firm Sterecycle has received conditional planning permission from Essex county council to develop a 240,000 tonne-a-year capacity resource recovery facility in Harlow based around autoclave technology.
The council resolved to approve plans proposed by the company, which has headquarters in London, at a development and regulation committee meeting last week (October 22). Development of the facility is expected to cost £85 million.
There is a pressing need for waste treatment facilities in this area and this has been acknowledged by the planning authority
Alistair Shotliff, Sterecycle
The full planning permission is still dependent on the agreement of a section 106 agreement – which would see Sterecycle have to improve landscaping, signage or visitor information in order to be granted approval for its waste plant.
Under the plans, Sterecycle intends to convert an existing warehouse on a seven-acre site on River Way in Harlow into a ‘resource recovery facility', which would include an autoclave plant, a materials recycling facility and a combined heat and power facility.
The autoclave is intended to operate as a merchant plant, treating both household and commercial waste. Steam and pressure from the autoclave process creates a biomass fragment and soil conditioner. Recyclable material would also be separated out from the autoclave and sent for reprocessing.
The biomass fragment would then be used in an on-site combined heat and power plant, which would export electricity to the national grid and heat back into the autoclave plant process. It is anticipated that the plant would produce 9MW of renewable of energy.
Sterecycle's development director, Alistair Shotliff, said: “We're pleased Essex county council has approved our plans for the site in Harlow. There is a pressing need for waste treatment facilities in this area and this has been acknowledged by the planning authority.
“Sterecycle offers both local authorities and businesses a solution to the rising landfill tax, and an environmentally acceptable way of diverting biodegradable waste from landfill without relying on mass burn incineration.”
Planning
The planning consent comes just two months after Sterecycle set out plans to explore the potential for developing its portfolio of facilities beyond autoclave to include treatment types such as biomass and anaerobic digestion (see letsrecycle.com story).
A spokeswoman for Sterecycle told letsrecycle.com that there was no current timeline for development of the resource recovery facility, as the firm was first focussing on doubling the capacity of its existing autoclave in Rotherham, which is due for completion in mid-2011 (see letsrecycle.com story).
She said: “There is no timeframe as such, as it will all depend on securing funding, at the moment Sterecycle is concentrating on Rotherham and then following that they will focus on securing funds for Harlow. It will take two years to develop from start of construction to becoming operational.
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