The company, which is jointly owned by North Yorkshire County Council and the City of York Council, disclosed its involvement in Defra's New Technology Demonstrator Programme in its latest annual report.
Defra wants to see 10 showcase plants set up before 2006 to demonstrate the viability of new waste treatment techniques currently unproven at a commercial level in the UK. Its Demonstrator Programme has 30 million to hand out for the ten projects.
The first round of projects under the New Technologies Fund was announced last year (see letsrecycle.com). A spokeswoman for Defra said today that preferred bidders in the second round are not being officially announced until due diligence assessments are complete.
Yorwaste said it is hoping to receive 4 million from the Defra fund to build an “advanced thermal treatment process” at Seamer Carr, the site of an existing landfill and materials recycling facility.
Yorwaste's new advanced thermal treatment plant would operate alongside other new facilities the company is currently installing at Seamer Carr to divert waste from landfill. These include a waste sorting plant operated by Wastec Ltd and an in-vessel composting system owned by HotRot Composting Ltd.
Commitment
Steve Grieve, managing director of Yorwaste, said in the report: “These developments will help increase the quantities of both business and household waste that are recycled, thereby reducing the waste to landfill. This reflects Yorwaste's commitment to its customers to manage their waste in a sustainable and environmentally acceptable manner.”
Yorwaste has also invested in a new composting facility at Tancred, near Catterick and a purpose-built household waste recycling centre at Seamer Carr since its last annual report, it said.
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Mr Grieve explained that the quantities of waste that the company recycled and composted had increased “substantially” this year.
But, he expressed “great disappointment” that Yorwaste had been served three enforcement notices by the Environment Agency regarding its Skibeden landfill. Practices at the site had been reviewed to prevent re-occurrence of difficulties involving waste cover, wind-blown litter and leachate.
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