The Institution of Civil Engineers North West has hailed the ambitious Greater Manchester waste initiative as a major step toward a sustainable low carbon future for our region.
ICE President Peter Hansford is today (Friday) visiting the project, which will see nearly £631m invested over the next 25 years in cutting the huge levels of waste historically destined for landfill sites dangerously close to capacity.
Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority is now diverting 44.06 per cent of its collected waste away from landfill – this figure rising to 75% once the developments are completed in 2014. The same initiative is increasing household recycling and composting performance from seven per cent in 2002/03 to 33.8 per cent in 2009/10.
ICE North West Regional Director Alan Butler says the Institution is an advocate of investing in technologies which treat waste as a resource rather than a problem to be dealt with by narrowly focusing on the management of landfill.
“We believe in the stepped progression to a circular economy, where recovered and recycled materials are high enough quality to be routinely bought back into use,” said Mr Butler.
“This reduces the demand for goods made from raw materials and could see the waste industry become part of a resource efficiency drive significantly contributing to CO2 reduction.
“Most recycled materials have a lower CO2 footprint than raw materials which are extracted or grown then undergo a carbon intensive process to become finished goods. 50% less energy is required to recycle paper compared with making it from raw materials,” he added.
The initiative is already reducing CO2. This year, nearly 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent has been saved from waste management and reduction activities.
The ICE President will see at first hand how one of the cutting edge sites at Longley Lane, Sharston mechanically processes and biologically treats waste material. The resulting waste recovered fuel (WRF) is then sent by rail to Ineos Chlor’s Runcorn plant, where 29 MW of electricity and steam will be generated in the site's combined heat and power (CHP) generation facility.
Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority’s waste strategy has objectives and targets which ICE says are ambitious yet realistic:
- Hold increases in municipal waste to 1 per cent per annum by 2010, zero by 2020 and no growth through to 2030;
- Increase recycling and composting of household waste to a minimum of 50 per cent by 2020.
- highest priority to waste reduction and minimisation, plus recycling and composting.
- Meet Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme allowances for Biodegradable Municipal Waste.
Alan Butler says this holistic approach to waste management and recycling offers the most efficient cost effective long term solution to the issue.
“This project clearly demonstrates the capacity for our waste industry to evolve from a disposal sector into a ‘supply’ sector that unlocks the real economic value of materials in a low carbon fashion,” said Mr Butler.
“This means collecting, sorting and reprocessing reusable materials based on their physical characteristics and the economic potential for their reuse,” he added