The green solution to waste
A skip firm in Sussex is investing into a £10m plant to convert the rubbish it collects into energy that will power up to 10,000 homes in a green initiative, according to The Argus. The process involves burning 40,000 tonnes of (non-recyclable) waste a year to drive steam turbines. The managing director, Greg Blurton says this is “vastly superior to landfill” and claims the plant emits less methane in a year than a cow.
The plant has a pollution-prevention and control permit and will be monitored by the Environmental Agency. It will be combined with a £1.4m recycling facility, enabling the company to recycle or recover energy from 98% of the waste it receives.
The plant is expected to be running by June 2008 as the first of its kind.
There is an article online at www.letsrecycle.com.
“At the Lancing site, which is one of two owned by Sussex Waste Recycling in Sussex, the company plans to shred lighter waste from skips such as plastic, using a “Dinosaurus” shredder. This will then join inert material such as soil and rubble to be sorted by the new materials recycling facility.
The MRF will include new Dutch and Belgian trommels, screens, blowers, magnets and conveyors which will separate the material into different fractions such as hard and soft plastics, soils, aggregates and biomass such as wood, paper and card. Plastics will then be exported abroad, soils sent for landfill restoration and secondary aggregates will be sold for use in drainage and concrete.
Meanwhile, the biomass will be burnt in the new energy from waste plant to heat water, which will drive steam turbines that will export 4MW of electricity to the national…”