The phs Group collects around 65,000 tonnes of hygiene waste annually – such as nappies and sanitary products – from customers across the UK. Its customers include NHS trusts and private nursing homes.
The “multi-million-pound contract” with Viridor will give phs national cover across the waste giant’s network of Energy from Waste (EfW) sites, “significantly reducing the road mileage required to dispose of hygiene waste sustainably”.
David Taylor-Smith, CEO of phs Group, said: “Organisations need to be questioning whether they should leave a burden of more than 500 years for every bag of washroom waste they dispose of. Through phs’ LifeCycle strategy, organisations will significantly reduce their impact upon the planet by landfill diversion and energy creation, transforming this burden into a legacy.”
The company also said the deal with Viridor forms part of plans to achieve 95% landfill diversion.
Capacity
Viridor’s says its EfW operational capacity is now 2.8 million tonnes (including joint venture partners) and generating 233MW of electricity per annum.
When its Avonmouth plant comes on stream, this will extend to 3.1 million tonnes and 267MW, according to a statement from the company.
Viridor and Grundon Waste Management have also announced their intention to build a new facility in a joint venture project at Ford in West Sussex.
Ambition
Commenting on the deal with the phs Group, Paul Ringham, Viridor’s commercial director, said: “Viridor’s fleet of energy recovery facilities across the UK provided the sustainable waste management strategy phs was looking for.
“A key part of Viridor’s relationship with phs is the emphasis on attaching a purpose to waste which cannot be recycled, putting this residual waste to work in a process which creates low carbon electricity and contributes to UK energy security. This is an ambition shared by phs which, like Viridor, views all waste as a resource and not rubbish.”
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