Covanta Energy and Peel Environmental have joined forces in a £500 million (US $741.9 million) project in the north west of England. The project will see the development of the UK’s largest industrial ‘eco-park’ aimed at promoting and encouraging recycling, reprocessing and energy recovery.
The park will be located close to Manchester and Liverpool and operated by Ince Park LLP. Covanta Energy will build, own and operate the WTE facility which will take in MSW and business waste and convert it into heat and electricity. Construction is set to begin in 2011. The energy produced would be enough to support 150,000 homes and much of it will be redeployed to the eco-park to increase the recycling and reprocessing capacity.
The remainder of the 126 acre site will be marketed to waste and environmental companies for their use, and approximately 50 acres of the site has been earmarked to become a nature reserve.
Myles Kitcher, Director of Peel Environmental commented, ‘We are delighted to have found a partner in Covanta who is committed to delivering the EfW (WTE) plant at the earliest possible opportunity. This means that we are looking at several hundred construction jobs over a three year period in addition to creating more than 1,000 full time jobs across the full Ince site. Jobs we promised during the planning process will now become a reality.’
Owen Michaelson, Chairman of Peel Environmental, said, ‘We need to make more careful use of the earth’s resources. I believe we should make efficient use of the waste that remains after recycling and maximise our use of renewable resources. This will enable us to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. We must use our precious mineral resources in a responsible manner and only as part of a balanced energy policy.’
Covanta’s UK MD, Malcolm Chilton said, ‘Our Waste to Energy (WTE) facility will be the heart of the eco-park which we believe will be a model for the future. It represents the most sensible and viable alternative to our country’s current over reliance on landfill for municipal and business waste. It will provide the energy and means to truly make recycling and reprocessing a reality and not just an aspiration.’
Commenting on the agreement Scott Whitney, Covanta’s European President said, ‘By combining the strengths of Peel Environmental and Covanta Energy we will provide an environmentally beneficial and economical method for dealing with residual waste. The synergies are fantastic and I am optimistic we will find other similar projects to work on together.’
Teabags not entirely biodegradable
A consumer body in the UK has warned that most teabags being sold in Britain today are only 70-80% biodegradable. This will come as a surprise to millions of Britons who drink tea every day. It has been reported that the outer net part of the teabags remains after the tea has rotted away, due to the heat-resistant polypropylene included within it.
Major manufacturers have had to respond to this issue.
PG Tips said, ‘Like most of the teabags in the UK, our teabags are made with about 80% paper fibre, which is fully compostable along with the tea leaves contained in the bag. The remaining packaging includes a small amount of plastic which is not fully biodegradable.’
Teadirect said, ‘Our teabags are 70% compostable’ and its sustainability manager Whitney Kakos said the use of the plastic polypropylene was ‘an industry-wide practice.’
A spokesperson for Clipper Teas said, ‘Our teabags are composed of vegetable and wood fibres and are sealed with a low level of polypropylene. Our teabags are suitable for inclusion in compost heaps where the fibres will break down. Any remaining fibres will be small and can be dispersed in the soil.’
The UK’s government agency Wrap has advised people to compost teabags anyway. Lynne Gunn, Wrap’s home composting expert, said: ‘Our advice remains that teabags are suitable for composting. If the bags are still visible when you want to use the compost, they can be sieved out or picked off the surface of the soil. You can also speed up the composting process by ripping open the bags.’
in brief
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has taken steps to combat the problem of plasterboard in the UK waste stream. Currently between 1.1 and 1.75 million tonnes of plasterboard enters the waste stream each year, causing a potential environmental problem. But the definition of waste plasterboard has now been reclassified to ensure that plasterboard processed to the correct specification is no longer classed as waste.
Starbucks pushes recycling effort
Starbucks is looking into new ways to recycle its annual 3 billion waste paper coffee cups in an attempt to create a commercial market for its waste.
Recycle and compost bins have been placed into 90 Seattle stores to comply with a new citywide policy which will divert 6000 tonnes of waste food and serviceware from landfill. In addition to this, cups used at the company’s Chicago stores will now be sent to a recycling facility in Wisconsin where they will be turned into Starbucks napkins.
Starbucks also recycle or compost waste in San Francisco and Ontario because of policies in place there. In areas without such regulations commercial demand dictates the recycling of products.
‘The biggest roadblock to recycling is the lack of demand for old paper,’ said Jim Hanna, Starbucks’ director of environmental impact and global responsibility. ‘We need to create demand for recyclers for our products.’
Japan mobile phone recycling pilot
Japan’s top mobile phone carrier, NTT DoComo Inc, conducted a pilot project early this year to gauge the effectiveness of mobile phone recycling processes. Used phones were collected, sorted and disassembled and the parts were assessed for usefulness. Oil from the plastic outer cases was also extracted, as well as gold and silver slag from the metal components. The aim was to establish a closed-loop recycling system for recycling phones by reusing parts and improving recyclable materials through chemical processing.
Victoria says no to bottle refund
The state of Victoria in Australia is putting up resistance to the idea of a national drink bottle refund scheme. It is believed that the scheme could increase costs and undermine kerbside recycling.
Since a cost-benefit comparison of recycling programmes showed that a national container deposit scheme could be a good thing, Victorian Environment Minister Gavin Jennings said other evidence showed it was not the best approach for the state. He said that Victoria’s existing kerbside recycling system already collected as much waste as neighbouring South Australia’s kerbside and container deposit systems combined.
‘A Victorian container deposit scheme would increase costs for families and potentially undermine our kerbside system,’ he said.
UAE moves towards eco-friendly plastic bags
Following a Federal Government decree that all plastic bags made anywhere in the United Arab Emirates must be biodegradable by 2013, the emirate of Ajman will aim to put this in place by the end of this year. Ajman is the smallest of the Emirates at just 260 square km.
Turning Ajman’s plastic industry into an eco-friendly one is ‘not a trial’, said the emirate’s Environmental Protection department head, and Ajman Municipality Environmental Protection head said he hoped that within six months there would be no plastic bags littering the Emirate’s streets.
Inspections will be carried out and companies will have to the end of the year to comply or risk hefty fines. Biodegradable bags will need a municipality-approved sticker giving instructions on how to store and transport them. At a recent meeting of around 70 plastic bag manufacturers and importers in Ajman, the audience were told that there was much work to do to meet to this end-of-year goal but that the decree must be complied with from day one.
Production of non-degradable bags is not permitted and a special pellet-sized ingredient must be added to the mix to help plastic bags break down over a period of time without leaving harmful residues. Wells Plastic and Eco-polymers are the companies that have been approved as suppliers of the granular additive.
The Ministry of Environment and Water is working to educate the public and manufacturers to accept the change to federal law.
Biffa signs MBT deal
A 25-year contract has been signed in the UK by waste company Biffa and West Sussex County Council. Biffa will treat the English county’s municipal waste using the latest MBT technology in a new facility close to its existing plant near Horsham, West Sussex.
The deal is worth more than £1 billion and will divert 80 % of residual waste from landfill, saving the county council £300 million over the length of the contract. The project will also create 80 new jobs in West Sussex.
Haase and Eggersmann technology will be used to treat up to 327,000 tonnes of residual municipal and commercial waste per year. M+W UK Ltd has been selected as the EPC contractor to build the new facility. Biffa will treat the mechanically separated biodegradable fraction using AD technology. The resultant biogas will be used to generate renewable energy. The facility’s sorting plant will also produce a refuse derived fuel (RDF).
Electrolux recycles floating ocean waste
The problem of floating waste in the Pacific Ocean is being addressed, in part, by vacuum cleaner manufacturer Electrolux. This terrible environmental issue has long been a problem and Electrolux is aiming to raise awareness of it by using floating plastic waste to make vacuum cleaners. The scheme is called Vac from the Sea.
‘There are plastic islands, some several times the size of the state of Texas, floating in our oceans. Yet on land, we struggle to get hold of enough recycled plastics to meet the demand for sustainable vacuum cleaners. What the world needs now is a better plastic karma,’ says Cecilia Nord, Vice President, Floor Care Environmental and Sustainability Affairs, Electrolux.
A limited number of vacuum cleaners will be made from waste salvaged from the Pacific, Indian, Atlantic and Mediterranean oceans and the Baltic and North seas and then put on display for decision makers and consumers to help raise awareness of the issue. Different techniques for collecting the plastic will be used depending on the location.
‘More recycling directly translates into more sustainable appliances and homes. Our engineers have managed to get our green range vacuum cleaners up to 70 % recycled plastic but our ultimate vision is of course 100 %, and for all ranges,’ says Jonas Magnusson, Product Marketing Manager at Electrolux.
Shanks to export RDF
The UK Environment Agency has granted the Shanks Group permission to export refuse derived fuel to facilities on mainland Europe. The company requested this as there is an over-capacity of recovery facilities on the continent.
Approval has been given for Shanks to export 40,000 tonnes within in the next year which will be used as feedstock by energy recovery plants in Germany and the Netherlands. Shanks had pointed out that there was a high demand for RDF outside the UK and that some waste treatment facilities have been reclassified under the Waste Framework Directive to ‘recovery’ facilities rather than ‘disposal’ facilities. UK law prohibits the disposal of waste material abroad under the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 2007.
The Environment Agency has stated that this is the first arrangement of this kind in the UK, and said that energy recovery of fuel ‘is not dumping’.
California looks at LCA of single-use and reusable bags
A Master Environmental Assessment (MEA) on single use and reusable bags has been developed by ICF International’s Sacramento office and released by Green Cities California (GCC). It summarizes existing research on the impacts of single use plastic, paper, compostable and reusable bags, as well as looking at the impact of policies such as fees and bans on bags.
Overview of findings:
- Single-Use Plastic Bags: Nearly 20 billion single-use high density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic grocery bags are used annually in California, and most end up in landfills or as litter. In fact, of the four types of bags considered, plastic bags had the greatest impact on litter.
- Single-Use Paper Bags: Kraft paper bags are recycled at a significantly higher rate than single-use plastic bags. Still, over its lifetime, a single-use paper bag has significantly larger greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and results in greater atmospheric acidification, water consumption, and ozone production than plastic bags.
- Single-Use Biodegradable Bags: Although biodegradable bags are thought to be an eco-friendly alternative to HDPE plastic bags, they have greater environmental impacts at manufacture, resulting in more GHG emissions and water consumption than conventional plastic bags. In addition, biodegradable bags may degrade only under composting conditions. Therefore, when littered, they will have a similar impact on aesthetics and marine life as HDPE plastic bags.
- Reusable Bags: Reusable bags can be made from plastic or cloth and are designed to be used up to hundreds of times. Assuming the bags are reused at least a few times, reusable bags have significantly lower environmental impacts, on a per use basis, than single-use bags. Some of the reviewed LCAs indicate that use of the non-woven plastic reusable bag results in particularly large environmental benefits.
- Effects of Policy Options on Single-Use Bags: In other regions of the world, fees and bans on bags have resulted in dramatic drops in consumption. For instance, the Irish plastic bag tax immediately resulted in a greater than 90 % reduction in use. Due to California law AB2449, no fee program on plastic bags can be introduced. However, bans on single-use plastic bags, as well as fees on other single-use bags, may be implemented to minimize use.
WTE plan in Baltimore
Albany-based company Energy Answers International held a public meeting in south Baltimore, Maryland, recently to discuss its plans to build a $1 billion 120 MW WTE facility there.
Project manager Kurt Kramer gave details of the project saying that the plant would process MSW, tyres, auto fluff and wood waste and turn it into energy using boiler technology used in coal-burning power plants. The facility would be built to gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards, and would be cleaner and more efficient that standard WTE plants. It would also exceed federal pollution-control requirements for emissions.
The plant is intended to employ about 200 staff once up-and-running and contribute around $30 million to the local economy.
Canada and China joint WTE venture
Ottowa-based Plasco Energy Group has announced a partnership with China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection (CECEP) Group on a new WTE plant to be built in Beijing, China. The plant is planned to process 300 tons (272 tonnes) per day and be operational by the second quarter of 2012. It is expected to cost around $170 million to build and will earn revenues from disposal fees and from selling the power produced.
CECEP Plasco China, as the facility will be known, will benefit from Plasco Conversion System technology. CECEP will also be looking into using this system for other WTE projects in China. ‘We can make a big difference in cutting global warming-causing gasses from landfill in the world’s fastest growing economy with one of the largest populations on earth through this partnership,’ said Plasco CEO Rod Bryden. ‘This technology, developed right here in Ottawa, can help communities all around the world to handle waste and contribute to our green energy future starting right now.’
‘The opportunity presented by this joint venture between CECEP and Plasco Energy Group is truly exciting for both companies,’ said Wang Xiaokang, President of CECEP. ‘Soon, not only Ottawa and Beijing, but communities across all of China will handle their municipal waste in the most environmentally friendly way, producing clean, reliable energy and usable materials. Garbage will truly become
a resource rather than a waste.’
Feathers converted into biodegradable plastic
Two scientists in the Washington area, USA, have discovered a way to create biodegradable plastics from feathers. The US poultry industry produces around 2000 tonnes of feathers per year and currently 80 % of this goes to waste. This new method, by Masud Huda of the Horticultural Research Institute and Walter Schmidt of the US department of agriculture, gives a way to reuse these feathers and create biodegradable plastic. ‘Feathers are about eight times as strong as cellulose,’ said Walter Schmidt. ‘By design, feathers are strong and durable. If feathers were twice as heavy or half strong then birds couldn’t fly.’
Republic Services CEO to retire
US waste giant Republic Services recently announced that its Chairman and CEO James O’Connor, 61, plans to retire early next year. Donald Slager will take over his role becoming the president and CEO of the Company on 1 January 2011, and has become a board member effective immediately.
O’Connor will remain chairmen until May 2011 when the next annual shareholder meeting takes place. Slager has worked in the waste industry for many years having been COO at Allied Waste until it was bought out by Republic in 2008. Kevin Walbridge will be the new vice president of operations.
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