North Lincolnshire council has taken ‘emergency steps’ to dispose of household waste at a local landfill site, following a move by Impetus Waste Management halting operations for the authority at its Teesside facility.
The local authority is seeking clarification from the North East business about its Billingham-based site.
Impetus produces RDF at the Billingham site
A spokesman for the council said: “The council is seeking clarification from Impetus about their cessation of service on Friday 28 October and will review its position once Impetus has responded.
“In the meantime, the council has put in place emergency arrangements to ensure that the waste collected from households and businesses is lawfully disposed of.”
Impetus
One of the largest exporters of refuse-derived fuel in the North East, Impetus holds contracts for the treatment of residual household waste with both Hull city and North Lincolnshire councils.
Hull city council, which has yet to comment on the situation, signed a 10-year residual waste deal with Impetus in 2014 (see letsrecycle.com story).
The household and commercial waste is converted into RDF at Billingham and is then exported to continental Europe for energy recovery.
The site includes a 500,000 tonnes-per-year waste transfer station, originally developed to meet the huge feedstock demands of neighbouring Air Products’ now defunct energy from waste plants.
Impetus Waste Management has yet to offer any official comment on the situation.
Local media reports in Stockton on Tees have raised concerns about potential job losses at the plant “amid uncertainty” about the Billingham site. The North East business employs around 120 people.
An aerial view of the Air Products TV1 site, which was scrapped in April
Air Products
Impetus had been contracted to send hundreds of thousands of tonnes of RDF to Air Products’ two nearby waste plants – TV1 and TV2 – with the former planned to enter operations this year.
But in April, Air Products announced it was pulling out of the energy from waste market before the two Tees Valley facilities were up and running – citing issues with the plasma gasification technology.
As Air Products’ main supplier, Impetus Waste Management played down the announcement confirming that it had already revised its strategy and diverted RDF supply to incinerators in Europe in 2015.
At the time, Impetus noted that it had fully replaced the anticipated Air Products RDF volumes and emerged “stronger” from the process (see letsrecycle.com story).
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
