Halton borough council has lifted a restriction on the amount of waste that can be transported by road to Viridor’s Runcorn energy from waste facility, as the company seeks to increase the capacity of the plant.
The move sees a 480,000 tonne restriction on the amount of waste that can be delivered by road to the facility replaced by a limit on Heavy Good Vehicle (HGV) movements instead.
Viridor’s Runcorn EfW
This would allow the facility to potentially receive a higher tonnage of waste, with an application for an amended environmental permit to allow the higher throughput currently being considered by the Environment Agency (see letsrecycle.com story).
The new agreement means that instead of a limit of waste transported to the facility by tonnage, Viridor can instead not exceed 1,930 movements (965 in and 965 out) in any calendar week and shall not exceed a maximum of 386 movements (193 in and 193 out) in any single day.
Expansion
Viridor has been operating the EfW, which processes around 890,000 tonnes per annum, since 2015. The facility currently is permitted to take in RDF and household, combustible and industrial wastes for incineration over four moving grate furnaces.
Much of the waste for the site comes from the Greater Manchester region through a contract with the Greater Manchester local authorities. A large proportion of this is transported by rail.
Commenting on the facility’s increased tonnage last year, Roy Griffin Viridor’s head of operations (North), said: “Since the plant opened in 2015, our team has steadily improved its performance. We are now able to turn more waste into energy, that would otherwise go straight to landfill, and reduce the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels.”
Mr Griffin added: “The results of our recent trials of additional throughput have shown that the plant is capable of operating for longer periods of time with fewer maintenance breaks. This means that we can maximise the environmental opportunities of the facility. Our aim ultimately is to generate more sustainable energy and send less waste to landfill.”
In increasing the capacity of the facility, Viridor is seeking to increase the overall tonnage treated at the facility over the one million tonne mark.
Beddington
Meanwhile, the company has also confirmed that its 275,000 tonne EfW in Beddington is close to being fully operational. In December 2018 at a meeting with the South London Waste Partnership, it was said that the facility will be online by the end of 2018 (see letsrecycle.com story). In its latest update, Viridor said the facility is now “in the final stages of process optimisation”.
A spokesperson for the company, said: “The ERF has been receiving waste from the South London Waste Partnership and from licensed third parties for a number of months, diverting it away from landfill, and generating electricity for export to the National Grid.
“In the coming weeks we will launch a virtual visitor experience for members of the community to learn more about the ERF and how it safely recovers energy from their residual waste.”
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
