Wate industry invests in premier league plants

In one of the biggest football-related transfers of the season, the London

Borough of Islington is finding a new home for waste operations which are to

make way for Arsenal FC’s planned new 60,000 seater stadium at Ashburton Grove.

The way is now clear for the council to grant planning permission to the development

proposals, which cover three separate sites, all within Islington’s boundaries

– Highbury, Ashburton Grove and a large area to the west of Holloway Road, known

as the Lough Road site.

In addition to the new stadium, the proposals would provide over 2,000 new

and refurbished homes, a sports and community centre, community health facilities,

leisure and publicly accessible open space plus a larger waste and recycling

centre.

One of several major waste industry developments announced in recent weeks,

the new waste and recycling centre in Lough Road will be operated by London

Waste, a 50/50 partnership between Sita and North London Waste Authority.

Since the plans were first mooted Arsenal has been working closely with the

waste operator to install a state-of-the-art waste facility on a derelict site

in nearby Lough Road. Located next to a major railway line, the new centre offers

the potential to transport waste by rail, which means that the facility will

be equipped with compactors. London Waste states that “whilst complying

with all the relevant environmental standards, the new three-level facility

will also be fully covered and will promote recycling as the first option before

other disposal methods are explored.”

Nationwide development

At Sevenoaks in Kent, Cory Environmental has won approval from the county council

for its plans to develop an integrated waste management facility. The 20 hectare

site, known as Greatness Quarry, is a former Gault clay quarry that had been

used to produce clay for brickmaking. Cory will progressively restore the void

with locally generated waste remaining after recycling which will be a feature

of the operation. Aggregates, soils and green waste composting will be recycled

on site, with some of the recycled material used on site for restoration.

It is anticipated that the site will take around 185,000 tonnes a year of locally

collected commercial, industrial and household waste and that landfill operation

will last 10 years. Currently, much of Kent’s waste is transported out of the

county.

Liquid waste treatment

Across the Kent border East Sussex County Council recently granted planning

permission to Lloyds Environmental Waste Management Ltd to develop part of its

22-acre site near Lewes. The company expects to create up to £2 million

of investment, which will be used to provide both a state-of-the-art liquid

waste treatment plant and new business units at South Chailey.

The liquid treatment plant, stated to be one of the most advanced of its kind,

will accept sewage, food and oily waste material. Once treated, the plant will

discharge clear water into a pond on the site before passing into a local stream.

According to Hugh Neatherway, Technical Compliance Manager at Lloyds Environmental,

the technology involved meets the very highest standards of safety. The company

states: “The plant incorporates a physical barrier which will be permanently

present between the treatment and discharge areas. This will consist of a membrane

bioreactor which will prevent the passing through of any harmful bacteria and

suspended solids, thus ensuring the maximum possible protection.”

Lloyds believes that the new plant will benefit the region overall, as it will

not only provide investment and jobs, but it will also equip the whole of Sussex

with its first liquid waste treatment facility. Until now, liquid waste in the

area has been transported to sites as far away as Southampton and Maidstone.

In the West Country, waste management and quarrying group, Roseland Group of

Companies, has welcomed a decision by the Government Office for the South West

to lift a Direction it imposed on Cornwall County Council, which prevented it

from issuing planning consent for Roseland’s application for an integrated waste

management facility to be built at Lean Quarry, Liskeard.

The Government’s decision, five months in the making, clears the way for Cornwall

CC to approve Roseland’s plans, the company states.

The development involves a plant on a 36-acre site which would tackle the county’s

commercial waste by increasing recycling and using residual waste to restore

the quarry to woodland and pasture. Landfill gas would also be used to generate

power for the quarry plant.

Richard Crocker, Company Secretary at Roseland, stated: “Last year we

recycled 25% of all the waste we received. This year we will recycle 33%. This

decision will help us improve this performance further. We are helping the County

Council to solve the problems of waste in Cornwall by tackling non-domestic

waste at no cost to the taxpayer.”

Recycling initiatives

Canadian recycling experts visited a recently opened MRF in Exeter, which represents

a £1.7million investment , as part of a Valpak sponsored research programme

looking at ways of increasing recycling from UK households.

The research is being carried out by David Davies Associates. Valpak is carrying

out a series of exploratory meetings with local authorities, including Exeter

City Council which runs the Marsh Barton recycling plant.. The MRF has the capacity

to process 36,000 tonnes a year of all recyclables except glass.

Maintaining the momentum on the recycling front, WRAP (the Waste Resources

Action Programme) has set out an action plan aimed at doubling plastic bottle

recycling levels in the UK. The driving force will be a major capital grant

competition to create automated sorting capacity to generate an additional reprocessing

capacity for 20,000 tonnes of plastic bottles a year. It is intended that the

new facilities will come on stream in 2003, with specified intermediate tonnages

until full capacity is reached by 2005.