WRAP launches two new funding sources for waste and recycling sector

Environmental Transformation Fund (ETF) Anaerobic Digestion (AD) Demonstration Programme – this £10 million fund is the first of its kind in England and is being delivered by WRAP for Defra, with support from the Carbon Trust. It aims to develop cutting edge anaerobic digestion technology on a commercial scale by investing in infrastructure and treatment capacity. The fund will support between three to six projects in England which, between them, will meet the programme’s objectives: maximising the environmental benefits from anaerobic digestion and its products; reducing the carbon footprint of the food supply chain and of water treatment infrastructure; maximising the cost-effective production of biogas; and, maximising the opportunity for the injection of biomethane into the gas grid. Each project must be able to demonstrate innovation, either in technology or through the operational processes.

Organics Capital Grant Programme – this £16 million capital grant scheme offers funding towards the development of food waste recycling infrastructure, such as in-vessel composting, anaerobic digestion or other proven technologies. The programme is open to projects located in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland and aims to reduce the amount of food waste entering landfill by increasing the UK’s capacity to recycle these materials into quality products. The target is to fund 400,000 tonnes of new capacity by March 2011.

Steve Creed, Director of Business Growth at WRAP, said: “The launch of these two programmes is further evidence of WRAP’s commitment to working with businesses to reduce waste and encourage recycling. We have made great strides over recent years, but it is only through continued investment in technology and infrastructure that we will meet our challenging target. Through WRAP, the UK Governments are investing nearly £40 million in the AD and food processing sector over the next three years.”

Editor’s notes:

WRAP helps individuals, businesses and local authorities to reduce waste and recycle more, making better use of resources and helping to tackle climate change.

Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by government funding from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Working in seven key areas (Construction, Retail, Manufacturing, Organics, Business Growth, Behavioural Change, and Local Authority Support), WRAP’s work focuses on market development and support to drive forward recycling and materials resource efficiency within these sectors, as well as wider communications and awareness activities including the multi-media national Recycle Now campaign for England.

More information on all of WRAP’s programmes can be found on http://www.wrap.org.uk/

The Environmental Transformation Fund (ETF) is a new initiative to bring forward the development of new low carbon energy and efficiency technologies in the United Kingdom. The fund formally began operation in April 2008, and is jointly administered by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR).

Anaerobic digestion is a series of processes in which micro-organisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen. It is already widely used to treat wastewater sewage in the UK and can also be used to treat other organic wastes, including domestic and commercial food waste, manures and biofuel crops. As part of an integrated waste management system, anaerobic digestion reduces the emission of landfill gas into the atmosphere. The process also provides a source of renewable energy as it produces biogas (a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide) which is suitable for energy production and can help replace fossil fuels. The biogas can be used to generate electricity and heat to power on-site equipment and, if there is sufficient excess, can be exported to the National Grid. There are also other potential uses being explored such as using biogas as a vehicle fuel. In addition, the nutrient-rich solids left after digestion can be used as fertiliser.

Case studies: (further details and supporting quotes supplied on request)

Cumberlow Compost Services – WRAP funding is helping to provide a new drive-through in-vessel facility at Cumberlow Compost Services for the processing of co-mingled kerbside collected material. The system, which is fully ABPR compliant, is provided by The Composting Company Ltd and is an addition to the current garden waste processing plant at Cumberlow, where they have been processing around 25,000 tonnes per annum. The new facility will process up to 12,000 tonnes per annum and will cost £900,000. WRAP has provided £126,000 of essential financial support to the project.

Countrystyle Composting – WRAP funding will support the creation of a new in-vessel facility at Countrystyle Composting based at Rydham, Sittingbourne in Kent. The system being installed is Covered System’s tunnel technology, which will allow the company to process materials in line with EU ABPR. The new facility will be capable of processing up to 35,000 tonnes of kitchen and garden waste materials. WRAP’s financial support is £790,500 from a total project cost of £2.7M.

MF & AL Bennion – WRAP is investing £350,000 of a total £1.7M in this Gloucestershire based production site adding an in-vessel operation to this windrow facility. The site will be able to process an additional 15,000 tonnes of garden and kitchen waste per annum. In addition to selling BSI PAS100 compost to other farmers and landscapers, the compost they produce will be used back on their farm.

Keenan Recycling Limited – This family run composting business located at New Deer, Aberdeenshire, has been composting garden and wood waste for local authorities for the past three years. WRAP funding will support the expansion of their current operation to incorporate an in-vessel system that will allow them to process co-mingled kitchen and garden waste, primarily from Aberdeen City. The company is investing approximately £3.2 million on the expansion. WRAP is supporting with funding of just under £432,000. The expansion will increase their processing capacity by almost 50 per cent.

Gray Composting Services Limited – WRAP funding will support the expansion of a small in-vessel composting operation in Fordyce, Aberdeenshire. Through the addition of two further chambers the site will double its compost production capacity by 2,300 tonnes per annum. The site will primarily process organic waste from the sea fish industry as well as some municipal garden and kitchen waste. WRAP’s financial support is £80,000 from total project cost of £320,500.

Levenseat Organics Limited – Levenseat are expanding their existing site in Forth, Lanarkshire to incorporate an in-vessel composting system for commercial and municipal garden waste. Levenseat will be installing a rotating drum technology manufactured by ICC, followed by static aerated bays and a maturation stage. The drum technology, whilst proven in Canada, is the first of its kind in the UK, and will manufacture a quality compost to BSI PAS100 standard. The system will have the capacity to compost an additional 18,000 tonnes of material per year. WRAP support is £395,000 from a total project cost of £1.4M

Fly-tipper gets record jail time

A Hertfordshire man who illegally dumped 85 tonnes of waste was given a record-breaking sentence for fly tipping.

Harvey Gibson received a 32-month jail term for "illegally depositing and disposing of controlled waste in contravention of a Waste Management Licence" and of managing a company while he was disqualified.

The Environment Agency (EA) brought the case against the "professional polluter" who dumped the waste in a field west of Reading.

He was also ordered to pay £20,000 in costs at Reading Crown Court.

Between 2004 and 2006 Mr Gibson dumped waste in Buckinghamshire and Berkshire, the court heard.

He buried or burned waste including batteries, solvents and plastic in a pit used to supply a public water supply and was caught after an undercover EA investigation.

According to Get Reading Jenny Thomas, an EA technical specialist, said: "Once a contaminant has entered the groundwater, the consequences for the communities’ water supplies and local river flora and fauna can be extremely serious."

The EA also said that prior to the sentencing on Friday, the longest jail term handed down for a similar offence was 22 months in prison.

Children to learn about waste through puppets

A puppet show that will teach children how to reduce the amount of things they throw away is being launched in Cambridgeshire.

Nine schools are taking part in the project, called Happy Bin by its creators.

Shows will run for six weeks, and pupils will weigh the amount of waste their schools throw away and put the information on a database on the internet.

Kirsty Martin from Peterborough City Council’s community engagement team said: "This is the start of a three year programme of activities aimed at reducing the waste we all produce.

"We will be working with community groups and charities to promote the reuse of materials, to reduce food waste and to encourage people to use fabric shopping bags.

"These measures alone have the potential to reduce waste by up to 7.5 per cent."

The show is promoted by Recycling in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough with the support of waste management company Donarbon.

West Sussex gets waste management award

West Sussex County Council was awarded the Best Partnership award for a recycling scheme for small businesses at the Valpak awards earlier this month.

Valpak, a compliance scheme, organised a night, with BBC presenter Jeremy Vine handing out the awards.

The county council worked with the BREW Centre, which provides local authorities with support and guidance on business resource efficiency, to deliver the project.

It was rewarded for working with other councils, businesses and the West Sussex Sustainable Business Partnership.

Phil Russell, head of waste management at the council, said: "The project aims to provide more education, improved collection arrangements and reception infrastructure at a network of transfer stations.

"In response to a very detailed survey the partnership has geared its service to the needs of small businesses and already has resulted in 2000 tonnes of waste being recycled that would otherwise have been landfilled."

Other winners included Tier 1, which took the award for Best WEEE Partnership for its collection and disposal of end-of-life IT equipment.

West Sussex hands out waste management contract

Waste management and collection at households in West Sussex is to be carried out by Biffa, the county council has announced.

The firm was selected as the preferred bidder for a 25-year contract worth £1 billion.

Biffa’s bid included plans to build facilities capable of processing up to 300,000 tonnes of waste a year at its landfill at Warnham, where it would separate out recycling material and turn the rest into a fuel for burning to generate electricity.

The cost will be borne largely by the council tax payers as the council claims the government has not contributed to the scheme.

Cabinet member for finance Louise Goldsmith told Lets Recycle: "We recognise this is a big burden for local taxpayers. Unfortunately the government has refused to provide any help in meeting that cost.

"First, it denied West Sussex access to PFI funding. Then it failed to deliver its promise to give back to local authorities landfill tax money, which they could have invested in alternative technologies."

The Recycling and Waste Contract was handed to Viridor Waste Managemnt in 2004 in a project know as Reclaim West Sussex, which boosted the recycling rate from 22 per cent to 37.8 per cent.

The Materials Resource Management Contract, which Biffa has won, is to be signed in 2009.

Mid Bedfordshire trials food for compost and energy

Mid Bedfordshire council used scraps of food waste to generate renewable electricity as part of a waste management pilot project.

The scheme administered by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) saw a total of 4,400 tons of food waste used to nourish the land.

According to the organisation, the 19 local authorities throughout England and Northern Ireland that collected food waste from 94,000 homes managed to reduce carbon emissions by 2,000 tonnes.

The compost has been used to fertilise farming and horticultural land and help redevelop reclaimed land.

Mid Bedfordshire council was one of two councils to put the waste through anaerobic digestion, a process which uses bacteria to release gasses from the waste which can be burned for energy.

Phillip Ward, director for local government services at WRAP, told 24dash: "If you design a scheme like this with the customer in mind, making sure you give them what they need and discussing their concerns about whether it’s going to be messy or smelly and how that can be dealt with, then results can be achieved."

Norfolk cracks down on waste dumping traders

People disposing of trade and commercial waste at domestic recycling sites are being targeted by the Norfolk County Council.

By depositing the waste at one of the county’s 19 recycling centres organisations are hoping to dodge the cost of disposing of their waste and costing Norfolk taxpayers an estimated £1 million a year.

Over the summer suspected traders were approached, with half of those now currently investigation, with the potential fine of £50,000 hanging over their heads.

Using CCTV with automatic number plate recognition at the Norfolk waste management centres, authorities were able to identify suspected rogue traders.

Ian Monson, cabinet member for environment and waste said: "The County Council is sending out a strong message that our recycling centres are not a ’soft touch’ for people trying to avoid paying for waste generated by their trade or business.

"We estimate that it is costing Norfolk’s tax payers more than £1 million year to get rid of illegal business waste and residents should not have to foot this bill."

Authorities in Norfolk recently reassured residents that their recycling was going to recycling plants and not to landfill and that the destination of all waste was known. The assertions were made after a Tonight programme suggested authorities did not know where waste ended up.

West Sussex recycling sorting plant on target

Building at a recycling material sorting plant to be built in West Sussex is on schedule for the facility to be operational early next year, visitors were told.

Members of the Ford Material Recycling Facility (MRF), which will sort all West Sussex household recycling, visited the site and were told construction was progressing at the right pace.

When completed, the facility will sort 85,000 tonnes of recycling collected at kerbsides and recycling bins.

According to the West Sussex County Times, Phil Russell, the County Council’s head of waste management, told the visitors: "It will use the latest recycling technology to sort different types of materials quickly, efficiently and to high quality standards.

"Recyclable materials will travel along conveyor belts with fast scanning sensors analysing and identifying the type of material as well as the shape, texture and colour."

Earlier this year, the council opened household recycling centre which created genuine organic compost.

County Council leader Henry Smith praised the facility claiming it showed how recycling can "close the loop".

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