Mechanical Biological Treatment Facility Opened in Cumbria

13 December 2011 Waste management firm, Shanks has opened its Northern Resource Park Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) plant at Hespin Wood in Carlisle as part of a £700 million contract. According to the company the new facility will form a linchpin of the 25 year, £700m waste disposal contract agreed between Cumbria County Council and Shanks in 2009 to transform the way household waste in dealt with in North Cumbria. The company said that the new facility, which opened over three months ahead of schedule, will reduce the volume of waste sent to landfill by 80% - leading to a significant reduction the county's methane emissions and saving it millions of pounds in landfill tax. The county council currently handles in the region of 250,000 tonnes of household waste each year. According to Shanks the new facility is the first of two plants designed to deal with Cumbria's future waste disposal needs, with a second MBT plant currently under construction at Sowerby Woods Business Park in Barrow and due to be operational by April 2013. Each of the two MBT facilities has the capacity to process 75,000 tonnes a year. The company said that each will send just 12.5% of the waste that arrives sites to landfill as a by-product of the process. Some waste, such as bulky non-recyclable items collected at Household Waste Recycling Centres, will still be landfilled directly but the company claimed that the total amount of Cumbrian waste going to landfill will reduce from around 150,000 tonnes to around 30,000. A further 100,000 tonnes of waste will still be recycled directly by households via kerbside collections or recycling drop-off points. Councillor Tim Knowles, Cumbria County Council's cabinet member for environment, commented: "While excellent progress has been made in reducing, reusing and recycling waste in Cumbria, this diversion of waste from landfill via the MBT plant will not only have major environmental benefits by reducing methane emissions but will also ensure Cumbria meets Government recycling targets and avoids millions of pounds of the additional costs of landfilling." Read More ADBA: Waste Fund Puts Chancellor in a Pickle The UK's organic waste industry has reacted angrily to news that the government's £250 million fund for waste collection is to be restricted to councils that intend to retain or return to weekly black bag collections. Mechanical Biological Treatment Facility Under Construction in Wiltshire Construction work has begun on Hill Waste Solutions' £20 million mechanical biological treatment facility in Wiltshire's Northacre resource recovery facility. Preferred Bidder for Glasgow AD, Gasification and MBT Facility Waste management company Viridor has been awarded preferred bidder status by Glasgow City Council to develop a 200,000 tonne MBT, AD and gasification facility in Polmadie, Glasgow. Free Magazine Subscription Free Email Newsletter