RECYCLING RATES STILL RISING AS COUNCIL VISITS NEW WASTE TECHNOLOGY PLANT

As part of the Council's ongoing efforts to find a sustainable method for treating the borough's residual waste, the Mayor, Portfolio Holder and Council officers are to visit the UK's first full scale autoclave plant for the treatment of household waste.

The Mayor of Bedford Borough, Dave Hodgson and Councillor Charles Royden, Portfolio Holder for the Environment, will be visiting the site at Rotherham on Thursday 7th October.

Autoclaving is a relatively new way of dealing with waste - although the technology has been used for techniques such as sterilising medical equipment for some time. During autoclaving, unsorted waste is added into large enclosed vessels. Saturated steam is then added, at approximately 130°C. The vessel is also pressurised meaning the waste is effectively 'cleaned'. This sterilises all non organic waste, such as plastics, cans, wood and glass, meaning they can easily be separated for recycling.

Organic waste, such as waste food, paper or card, is also separated by the process and disintegrates into a fibrous compost like material. This leftover material can then also be re-used in a number of different ways.

As the, fibre, metals and other recyclable components are removed by this process; the residual waste stream for disposal is approximately less than 30% by weight of the original stream. The resulting materials are also mostly devoid of materials that produce methane as they decompose.

Mayor of Bedford Borough, Dave Hodgson, said: "If Bedford Borough does nothing to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill, the cost to local taxpayers will be £3million by 2020. Landfill is also environmentally unsustainable and so for these reasons we are working to minimise its use.

"Recycling rates in Bedford Borough are continuing to increase and this month a recycling rate of 41% was achieved. Alongside these efforts with local residents, we are investigating different waste treatment technologies around the UK to find a more sustainable method of dealing with our residual waste in the long term. Our task is to identify the most suitable and sustainable waste treatment method for Bedford Borough."

The plant is owned and operated by Sterecycle Ltd. They are the first company in the UK to build and operate an industrial scale autoclave plant to process household waste.

Under the EU Landfill Directive, councils must reduce the volume of biodegradable municipal waste going to landfill to 75 per cent of 2001 levels by 2010; to 50 per cent by 2013; and to 35 per cent by 2020.