Waste management firm TW Services has started construction on an ambitious waste treatment and energy park at Sandwich in East Kent, which is set to handle 750,000 tonnes-a-year of waste.
The company was granted planning permission by Kent county council earlier this week (May 10) to develop the proposal at a 20-acre site adjacent to the disused Richborough power station in the east of the county.
TW Services currently handles 400,000 tonnes of mostly construction and demolition waste, as well as some commercial and municipal waste. Under the new project, the firm intends to add 325,000 tonnes-a-year of reprocessing and recycling capacity, mainly focussed on municipal waste treatment.
This will include a 50,000 tonne-a-year capacity materials recycling facility, a 25,000 tonne-a-year capacity anaerobic digestion (AD) facility and a 250,000 tonne-a-year capacity soil washing plant.
Spencer Ray, director of family-owned TW Services, said: We are providing modern, purpose designed facilities creating the essential infrastructure needed to increase recycling capacity on the site that will handle waste from Dover, Shepway, Thanet and Canterbury for the next 10 years and beyond.”
Feedstock
Feedstock for the plant has been secured under a sub-contract with Veolia Environmental Services, which landed a 10-year waste management contract tendered by five Kent councils in November 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story).
The contract covers waste collected from both Dover and Shepway, and, from 2013, this will be extended to cover both Thanet and Canterbury.
Under the deal, TW Services will handle municipal waste, food waste, green waste, construction and demolition waste, commercial and industrial waste, and around 6,000 tonnes of hazardous waste.
Mr Ray added: Over the past three years we have worked hard on planning and strategic issues concerning the newly formed East Kent Joint Waste Contract 2010. Planning permission for the site means we are moving rapidly towards zero waste to landfill.
In its planning documents, Kent county council referred to the TW Services proposal as a fundamental plank of necessary waste treatment infrastructure development in East Kent.
And, it is anticipated that the proposed AD plant will help councils in East Kent to offer more households garden and food waste collections.
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