Hull and East Riding to increase household waste recycling to 35%

An energy from waste incinerator and a composting facility will reduce Hull and East Riding councils' dependency on landfill sites by more than 50%. The councils have signed a contract with Waste Recycling Group (WRG) that involves "beneficial use" of 75% of the councils' waste.


In keeping with the UK Government’s soon-to-be-published A Way with Waste national waste strategy, Hull and East Riding have chosen WRG to manage waste with an overall aim of reduced dependency on landfill sites.

In preparing for a new waste management contract, the two councils were keen to lessen environmental impacts. “From the beginning of the tendering process, they were clear that they wanted to introduce a waste strategy that wouldn’t be entirely reliant on landfill,” Mike Snell of WRG told edie. The councils’ current waste management contract, which ends in early December, results in almost all household waste going to landfill.

The first of two new facilities that form part of WRG’s 25-year contract will be a composting plant at Bridlington, where the organic components of household waste will be recovered and composted. The resulting soil will be used to restore derelict land and improve other sites’ soil quality. Expected to be operating by 2002, the Bridlington composting plant will handle 30,000 tonnes of waste each year from Bridlington and North Wolds. Metal and plastic recovery will be incorporated into the site’s operation.

The composting activities at Bridlington will help raise the region’s household waste recycling level from 7% (which is also the UK national average) to 35%.

An energy from waste incineration plant will come online in 2005. It will handle 165,000 tonnes each year, with the energy generated from incineration exported to the National Grid. The energy produced should meet the needs of about 33,000 people.

WRG owns and operates a large energy from waste incinerator in Nottingham. It is the oldest such facility in the UK and was fully refurbished two years ago. It is a combined heat and power plant and uses household waste generated by residents of the city of Nottingham.

“There will be some residual waste that will go to existing landfill sites – not all will be incinerated or composted,” acknowledged Snell. “But three quarters of all waste will be put to beneficial use.”

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