Planners give green light to £35m MBT plant

A £35m facility to recycle biodegradable waste into renewable energy is set to open in Cheshire after council planners gave the scheme the thumbs up.


Dublin-based Bedminster Technology has teamed up with Cheshire-based Organic Waste Management (OWM) to build a BioEnergy facility in Northwich.

Cheshire County Council granted planning permission for the MBT plant at the end of last month and work is already underway to prepare the site.

It is expected to have a capacity of 150,000 tonnes of waste a year – which will be collected from Cheshire residents – and produce up to 10MW of electricity.

Bedminster chiefs told edie the plant is expected to be completed and operational by the end of this year.

Bedminster chief executive Pearse O’Kane said the company’s BioEnergy technology could play a key role in reducing the UK’s carbon footprint and mountains of waste.

He said: “The high biomass diversion levels, along with the generation of renewable energy and the negative carbon footprint of the facility, are of tremendous benefit to the UK Government in achieving their key waste, energy and carbon emission policy objectives.”

He said that every tonne of waste processed by Bedminster is equivalent to preventing one tonne of CO2 from entering the atmosphere, making every 100,000 tonnes of waste processed at the plant equivalent to taking 36,000 cars off the roads.

Mike Brookes of OWM, said: “The Bedminster Technology is a clean, safe and sustainable solution for waste producers, local government and the public alike.

“By using the Bedminster Solution, consumers will only need one bin and only one truck will be needed to collect all the rubbish.

“I believe that this will be the first of many such facilities in the UK.”

Kate Martin

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