The UK has to reduce the amount of waste going into landfill, and the Cheshire Waste Partnership, which comprises the County and District councils of Cheshire are aiming to increase the recycling rate to at least 50%. However recycling at 50% will still leave a considerable amount of residual waste which will have to be dealt with.

Following consultation with the people of Cheshire the most popular option for dealing with this residual waste was for a combination of Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) and a dedicated Energy from Waste Facility (EfW).

Integrated Waste Management Facility

The Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF) will be designed specifically to serve the local population of North Cheshire. It is envisaged that 200,000 tonnes per annum of household waste from North Cheshire will be treated at this facility, and will be brought to the site in sealed lorries and stored internally within purpose built facilities designed to prevent litter and odours.

Waste which is sorted in this facility could then act as source of material for other businesses located on the site. Plastics, metals, glass etc which have been recovered at the facility could all then be re-processed by other businesses in the RRP, specifically within the Environmantal Technology Complex (ETC). It is this type of synergistic relationship between facilities on which the RRP concept is founded.

The IWMF would have four distinct elements and these are as follows:

Materials Reclamation Facility (MRF) – This would be a sorting facility which would typically separate a range of recyclables e.g. plastics, cans, glass and paper for onward transhipment to re-processors;

Mechanical Biological Treatment Plant (MBT) – This process maximises the beneficial use of all components of the waste stream by separating out the water, recyclable and energy rich elements of the delivered waste to produce Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF).

In-Vessel Composting Facility – This type of composting facility would handle kitchen and garden waste collected directly from households and civic amenity sites and may also accept suitable waste from parks and gardens. This waste is then converted, in the presence of oxygen, into a granular material, which can be applied to land for soil improvement, subject to certain legislative parameters (e.g. the Animal By-products Order).

Industrial and Commercial Waste Transfer Station – The purpose of this facility would be to bulk up industrial and commercial wastes into 20 tonne payloads, prior to their transhipment to off site treatment and disposal facilities.