The site currently takes garden green waste for windrow recycling including from Waste Recycling Group's disposal contract with the West London Waste Authority (WLWA). The WLWA work covers the green waste collected in the London Boroughs of Ealing, Hounslow and Richmond-upon-Thames. The authority is also responsible for waste disposal for Brent, Harrow and Hillingdon.
A spokesman for Waste Recycling Group said: “We do have planning permission from Oxfordshire county council and we are looking at a start date of 2004-05 for the enclosed composting.”
When the enclosed composting is licensed and operational it will be able to take kitchen waste in compliance with the Animal By-Products Regulation. The amount of material being handled by the plant is still subject to contractual arrangements, but the resultant compost will be used in the restoration of the Sutton Courtenay landfill site.
Rail Link
Waste Recycling Group has invested 1.7 million into transporting green waste to the site via rail from London. Over 1 million came from the London Recycling Fund with additional investment by WLWA. The rail link will transport the material from the kerbside collection of green waste which was recently launched in West London and from the CA sites in the area.
The green waste from the WLWA is collected in biodegradable bags and taken to the waste transfer station at Brentwood for sorting. The waste is transferred from trucks to Waste Recycling's ISO containers before being loaded onto flatbed railway wagons for the 55 mile journey to Sutton Courtenay.
Barry Lister, senior assistant general manager for WLWA, said: “The major waste sites in west London that are already operational are not of sufficient size or in the right locations to offer any significant short term assistance in meeting the challenging recycling targets we need to achieve.
“We looked at all the options to increase our recycling rates including speaking to Waste Recycling to see what they could offer. They were prepared to upscale and suggested utilising the current rail link as the most cost-effective and efficient solution to improve our green waste composting activity.”
A spokesman for Waste Recycling Group said: “We are currently taking 30-40 tonnes of green waste a week from West London, which is the equivalent of one container three times a week. But we expect that to grow pretty quickly. We anticipate, when the scheme is fully operational, 10,000 tonnes of green waste a year. But of course this depends on the local authorities collecting the waste and the public's response to green waste segregation.”
He added that in the future the Sutton Courtenay site may take kitchen waste from WLWA into its enclosed compost plant.
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