• Covering news and technical developments in the recycling, environmental, renewables and waste-to-energy
markets Government to review waste
UK. The UK's new Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Right Honourable Caroline Spelman MP, used the Futuresource 2010 event in London as the first opportunity to address the UK waste industry since taking up her post last month.
She explained the new Government’s approach to waste in the years ahead, stating that Defra would be working towards a zero waste economy. In conjunction with the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the intention is to send a much greater volume of biodegradable waste through anaerobic digestion, generating renewable energy and bringing down levels of greenhouse gases from landfill.
Progress has already been made, with the amount of waste sent to landfill going down by over a third since 2001 and households now recycling over 38 per cent of their waste, compared to only 9 percent ten years ago. Recycling from green waste has also gone up 13 per cent in the last decade.
But, according to Spelman, it’s the pace of change that’s the problem, and there is a need to go faster and further. Waste is a big economic and environmental challenge and requires a new approach, she said, to recognise its cost to business, households, local and central Government, and the environment.
Spelman spoke about the
need to start thinking about future infrastructure needs, including
greatly increasing anaerobic digestion capacity. With this in mind, local
authorities will now be supported by a major PFI programme as they
modernise recovery and disposal facilities away from landfill and in line
with EU commitments.
Businesses and
manufacturers need to redouble their efforts to drive down waste generated by production and the amount of packaging used. Businesses inevitably produce more waste than households, she said, and there has been a tendency for Government attention to be focused on domestic waste, rather than giving businesses encouragement.
The intention is to use the idea of ‘Responsibility Deals’, such as working with retailers and the business community to continue to drive down food waste and unnecessary packaging.
To ensure that household waste, local authority services, energy from waste or business behaviour is not tackled in isolation, Spelman announced a fundamental review of all existing waste policies. This will include input from Government departments, such as CLG, BIS and DECC, and partners outside government, including the waste management industry and local authorities.
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11:55 16/06/2010
Dynamic waste composting
UK. Braby, the stainless steel and aluminium silo specialist, has supplied 13 vessels for a dynamic organic waste composting plant launched by food waste processor Vertal. The plant processes some 75,000 t of material each year converting it into nutrient-rich fertiliser for use in agricultural food production. Food waste is fast becoming a big environmental issue for the UK.
The vessels are used in the digestion stage of the composting process at Vertal’s new, hitech composting plant in Mitcham, South London. The innovative process, which works like a supercharged industrial compost heap, uses advanced Auto-thermal Thermophilic Aerobic Digestion (ATAD) technology to transform the waste.
A number of technical challenges were associated with the project because of the need to utilise existing buildings with a low roof height. Vessel design has assisted the complex installation procedure with the incorporation of short leg heights, special jacking points on the legs and shallow bases. Once installed, the vessels were clad with thermal insulation to ensure maximum energy efficiency.
Paul Mayer, Braby’s sales and marketing director, said the company was able employ expertise gained from related projects to meet Vertal’s needs. “We were able to provide easily serviceable vessels which allow for optimum capacity within the processing plant”, he said.
Vertal's founder and MD Leon Mekitarian expressed satisfaction with the bespoke vessels which had to be accommodated into such a compact area.
www.braby.co.uk
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12:15 31/03/2010
