Elizabeth Truss visits Yorkshire waste firm
Secretary of State for the Environment Elizabeth Truss has taken a tour of Associated Waste Management’s materials recycling facility near Bradford, West Yorkshire.
The Defra minister observed sorting and separation of recyclables at the plant, and met pupils from the local Stanningley Primary School’s Year 3 environmental committee.
The plant processes around 200,000 tonnes of recyclables per year and incorporates technology such as infra-red spectrometry for sorting and ballistic separation.
AWM marketing manager, Mike Robinson, said: “Elizabeth paid particular interest in determining how the better separation of waste by the consumer could happen and was keen to see food waste diverted from general waste containers.”
AWM currently holds a number of waste contracts for local authorities, including Bradford metropolitan district council.
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REACT Energy withdraws biomass application
Irish firm REACT Energy plc has temporarily withdrawn its planning application for a 12MW biomass combined heat and power facility, in order ‘to address concerns raised by the local planning authority’, it confirmed in a 2014 statement.
The company signed an agreement for the site lease with London & Devonshire Trust, which provides REACT with a three-year option period to secure planning permission and other necessary consent for the project before construction can begin.
And elsewhere, REACT subsidiary Kedko’s plans for a waste wood biomass plant in Enfield, North London – originally approved in September 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story) – also look to be in some difficulties.
The Green Investment Bank (GIB)’s fund manager, the Foresight Group, had entered into a collaborative agreement with REACT in December 2013 over the financing of the Enfield biomass project, but Foresight has now given notice of its intention to terminate the lease agreement in relation to the Enfield site, which REACT is contesting.
REACT said in a statement in December 2014: “The Company intends to continue its discussions with Foresight in relation to Enfield and the Enfield site with a view to concluding a suitable way forward including the option to purchase outright the land with the aid of existing and new investors in REACT.”
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Viridor wins Bath wood waste contract
Viridor has retained a 12-month contract to treat wood waste on behalf of Bath and North East Somerset council.
The £503,000 contract will see the waste firm process around 5,000 tonnes of waste wood at its Filton recycling and transfer station site on Gloucester Road, Bristol.
The contract, which officially began on January 19 this year, comes with an optional 12-month extension.
Russell Humphrey, unit manager for Viridor in Bristol, said: “We were pleased to retain this contract and receive the additional feedback through the tender process that we scored highly for the operation of a safe and helpful site at Filton where the contract is managed.”
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Waste operator gets community service sentence
A waste operator in Perthshire was sentenced to a community payback order of 260 hours this week after pleading guilty to waste offences.
Callum Menzies, who operated Fair City Skips from a site on the Friarton business park, was charged with storing rubble, mattresses, tyres and other materials outside of the three-month time limit agreed under his licence.
Mr Menzies was also convicted of breaching the Environmental Protection Act by depositing skips containing plastic guttering, wood and bathroom fittings on an area of land on Friarton Road in April 2013.
Site inspections were carried out by SEPA officers extending back to 2010 in an effort to bring the Fair City Skips site into compliance. When these efforts failed, the decision was taken to report Mr Menzies to the Procurator Fiscal for the offences committed in 2012 and 2013.
The payback order will require Mr Menzies to carry out unpaid work on behalf of the local community. He had also received a four-month curfew to remain at his address between 7pm and 7am each night.
A SEPA representative said: “While SEPA will always seek to work with operators to help them find ways to become compliant, we are committed to pursuing persistent offenders who refuse to operate within the bounds of legislation, to ensure they don’t continue to gain from illegal operations.”
When contacted by letsrecycle.com, Fair City Skips could not be reached for comment.
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Shanks achieves final closure for Canada facility
Shanks Group has achieved financial close for its Surrey organics biofuels processing plant in Canada.
The contract is being managed by Orgaworld Canada, part of Shanks’ organics division, and is underpinned by a pub-private partnership with the Canadian government.
The facility will receive and process 115,000 tonnes of organic waste annually and convert it into natural gas to power Surrey’s natural gas collection vehicles and a new district energy system.
Shanks will design, build, and operate the facility for 25 years, and provide Surrey with one of the first closed-loop fully-integrated organics waste management system in North America. The plant is due to begin operations in 2017.
Peter Dilnot, Group chief executive of Shanks, said: “We are delighted to take this important step forward for the contract with the City of Surrey, which is in line with our strategy to expand our organics footprint in Canada and invest in infrastructure which is underpinned by long-term contracts. We look forward to continuing to work with the City of Surrey to begin construction of the first closed-loop integrated organics waste management system in North America.”
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