Veolia says EfW ‘pivotal’ for clinical waste 

In June 2020, the company was granted a permit to process healthcare waste at its EfW plant in Tyseley, Birmingham letsrecycle.com story), and in December it also processed healthcare waste at its Sheffield plant.

Veolia said both of these were part of a trial, and has published part of the results today (21 June).

The waste management giant reported that the findings from this trial show EfW has “the lowest carbon footprint of the three common treatment options for orange bagged waste”.

Veolia said this is because the energy consumption at its facilities is low at around 75 kWh per tonne of waste treated, and electricity generation is high at around 690 kWh per tonne of waste treated.

Veolia, which operates ten EfW facilities in the UK, disposes of the more than 61,000 tonnes of orange bagged clinical and infectious waste each year.

Backed by Veolia’s hazardous waste team, the company noted that medical and clinical wastes have been “compliantly managed” through repeat collections, tipping and return, containers for safe on-site storage, and dual coding of waste to allow test kits and PPE to be included in the same bags.

‘Rapid response’

Donald Macphail, chief operating officer of treatment, at Veolia said: ‘The latest data again highlights the key role we have had in helping treat the additional waste arising from controlling the pandemic, and the part our key workers and specialised facilities have played.

“By delivering a rapid response and managing the changing situation we have shown the importance of  the industry, and how its flexibility has enabled it to adapt to meet these new challenges.”

Permits

The statement follows a couple of permit alterations submitted by Veolia to the Environment Agency throughout last year.

In June 2020, the Environment Agency approved Veolia’s application to alter its environmental permit to allow the processing of healthcare orange bagged waste at its EfW plant at Tyseley, Birmingham.

The decision meant that Veolia can now process hazardous clinical waste in their two municipal waste incineration lines at the 350,000 tonnes per annum capacity plant (see letsrecycle.com story).

The waste management company also announced plans to alter its permit at its Sheffield EfW plant, to accept  maximum of 10,000 tonnes a year of orange bagged healthcare waste.