Green light to build two waste treatment plants

Waste treatment infrastructure has received a boost with two plants in the south of England getting planning permission in the past two weeks.


Renewable energy and waste treatment firm New Earth Solutions has been granted planning permission for an energy-from-waste (EfW) facility in Dorset, that will thermally treat refuse derived fuel (RDF) produced at an existing facility nearby.

Meanwhile, the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham has given planning consent to ReFood UK for its next major anaerobic digestion plant for food waste.

New Earth Solutions’ facility in Canford will have the capacity to treat around 80,000 tonnes of RDF per year via gasification and pyrolysis. Most of the fuel will be sourced from the firm’s mechanical biological treatment (MBT) facility on the same development.

Construction work on the EfW facility is expected to begin in 2014, with the 10MW plant then expected to be fully operational in 2015.

New Earth managing director Darren Stockley said: “By producing RDF from the waste which can’t be recycled we have successfully diverted more away from landfill. Now we need to make sure we are making the most of that RDF and have sufficient energy recovery capacity for its use within the UK. By closing this loop, New Earth is increasing the environmental value that can be recovered from all the waste it treats.”

Meanwhile, construction work on ReFood’s Dagenham plant is set to begin in January 2014, which also includes an animal by-products transfer station capable of processing 55,000 tonnes of material each year, as well ancillary equipment and a two-storey office block. The £30m plant will be the company’s third site in the UK.

ReFood commercial director Philip Simpson, commercial director at ReFood, part of PDM Group, commented: “We are delighted to get the go ahead for this landmark plant which will help to ensure that food waste arising in the London area can be transformed into renewable energy and valuable nutrients to go back onto the land.”

Liz Gyekye

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