A freight locomotive has been painted in ‘Biffa red’ to mark a partnership between the waste management company and GB Railfreight to expand the rail hub network for the transport of inactive waste.
Just before the Easter weekend, a launch event was held in York where Biffa chief executive, Ian Wakelin, boarded ‘The Flying Dustman’ to mark its first journey.
At the event, Biffa highlighted its recent opening of a rail transfer station in Manchester with a similar site in Leeds to follow in the near future.
The partnership with GB Railfreight is to initially focus on connecting the cities of Manchester and Leeds with Biffa’s landfill facility in Roxby, near Scunthorpe. When fully operational these two strategic rail links alone are expected to facilitate the transportation of about 250,000 tonnes of inactive waste annually which, estimates the company, is equivalent to some 16,000 truck journeys.
[gallery_placement]The development of a rail hub network is in line with Biffa’s strategy of developing its infrastructure “and innovating its customer service offering to meet an evolving market dynamic and customer demand, including continued investment in recycling and other waste processing technologies”.
‘Environmental benefits’
Mick Davis, managing director of the resource recovery and treatment division at Biffa, said: “The partnership with GB Railfreight marks another step forward in our strategy to develop our waste management infrastructure and innovate our customer offering. By increasing the mobility of inactive waste, rail transportation will enhance our service offerings from our existing landfill network whilst also providing significant environmental benefits compared to road transportation.”
And, as the train was launched, Biffa issued a reminder about the role of landfill. The company said: “As presented in Biffa’s ‘The Reality Gap (2017)’ report on the future of the UK waste market, while levels of recycling have improved substantially, landfill continues to play a fundamental and long-term role in the waste hierarchy to deal with those wastes which are non-combustible and non-recyclable. There is no alternative form of disposal for such waste, yet current landfill capacity is rapidly diminishing.”
The company added: “With fewer and fewer accessible landfill sites in operation, waste is now travelling a significant distance from source to disposal. In some regions rail transportation provides an economically viable means of facilitating the movement of waste, enabling Biffa to better leverage its existing landfill network and innovate its customer offering accordingly whilst also providing significant environmental advantages over road transportation. The Group continues to closely examine other regions of the UK where rail might provide similar advantages.”
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
