Viridor has outlined its continued investment in energy recovery facilities, in the company’s latest sustainability report, released this week.
In its Sustainability Report 2017, the waste and resources management company has aligned its progress with the UN’s Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs), which were adoptedin 2015.
Introducing the report, Phil Piddington managing director at Viridor, said: “All of the UN SDGs are important. Several especially resonate with
Viridor as we continue to work with our customers and partners
to deliver greater resource efficiency.”
An artist’s impression of the Avonmouth EfW, which Viridor aims to bring online by 2020
The report focuses on eight of the SDGs, including: ‘Affordable and Clean Energy’, ‘Decent Work and Economic Growth’, ‘Sustainable Cities and Communities’, ‘Responsible Consumption and Production’, and ‘Climate Action’.
Energy recovery
In terms of ensuring access to energy, Viridor highlighted its eight operational Energy Recovery Facilities (ERFs) and the four it has under construction.
According to the report, in 2016/17 Viridor’s total renewable energy generation was 1,531GWh, including joint ventures.
And, the company said two of these ERFs at Dunbar and South London (Beddington) are ‘well into their construction phase’.
Viridor said: “Glasgow’s Recycling and Renewable Energy Centre is receiving waste and generating energy and the new construction contracts are progressing well with ERF commissioning expected in 2017.
“Our Avonmouth ERF investment is now underway with site infrastructure in place and ground works commenced.”
The company reports that Avonmouth will become operational in 2020, serving around 3.5 million people in the West of England and supplying the national grid with enough electricity to power 44,000 homes.
Sutton
As part of Viridor’s work to help to make cities more ‘inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’ the company has formally signed an agreement with the London Borough of Sutton’s energy-services company, Sutton Decentralised Energy Network (SDEN). SDEN will deliver heat and hot water generated at Viridor’s Beddington site to a nearby district heating network in South London, providing heating and hot water to the new 700-home Felnex development.
The company explained that the project will initially use energy generated by the existing landfill gas power plant to provide heating to homes and businesses in Sutton, “tying into the Mayor of London’s support for decentralised energy networks as a way to maximise the efficiency of energy generation”.
“This will be supplemented by the Combined Heat and Power enabled Beddington Energy Recovery Facility (ERF), which is due to be operational in 2018.”
Investments
“All of the UN SDGs are important. Several especially resonate with Viridor as we continue to work with our customers and partners to deliver greater resource efficiency.”
Phil Piddington
Viridor
In the 2016/17 financial year, Viridor claims to have invested £185 million in new resource management infrastructure and £8 million in community support, sponsorship and charitable donations of which £7.7m was paid to Viridor Credits for distribution via the Landfill Communities Fund.
The report goes on to explain how the company is continually working on solutions to align next-generation recycling resources with the needs of the UK industry. Viridor cited its £12.5m advanced plastics recycling facility at Rochester – capable of processing 75,000 tonnes of mixed plastics each year.
According to Viridor, the Rochester team have partnered with packaging specialists Nextek (funded by WRAP), to help find a solution to the 1.3 billion black plastic ready-meal trays sold by UK supermarkets that aren’t currently recyclable.
In 2016/2017, 106 million tonnes of recycling volumes were traded, and 2.2 million tonnes throughput for energy recover, the report shows.
Landfill
To prevent biodiversity loss, Viridor said it continues to manage 31 closed landfill sites across the UK in accordance with biodiversity plans.
Related links
Sustainability Report 2017
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