Shanks submits plans for food waste recycling plant in Pontypool
Shanks, one of the Europe’s leading sustainable waste management businesses, has submitted a planning application to Torfaen County Borough Council for the development of an Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant at its site at New Inn, Pontypool, South Wales.
The AD plant, which utilises the technical and operational experience of Shanks‘ Orgaworld business, is designed to recycle food waste from local households and businesses, rather than send it landfill, which is both environmentally and financially unsustainable.
AD is a natural process which converts organic matter such as food into biogas, a renewable source of energy, and digestate, a nutrient-rich soil fertilizer.
Due to changes in national waste policy, endorsed by the Welsh Government, alternative waste treatment methods such as AD are now a preferred solution. As one of the UK’s leading AD players, Shanks plans to build a 90,000 tonne per annum AD plant at the New Inn site, which would produce enough energy to power at least 4,000 homes. Subject to receiving planning permission, the plant would be operational in the first half of 2014.
Ian Goodfellow, Shanks’ UK Managing Director, said: “Sending our rubbish to landfill is not only unacceptable practice these days when we have a variety of new technologies designed to create value from waste, but it also costs local councils and communities increasing amounts of money as landfill tax continues to rise.
“At Shanks, we believe waste should be reused, recycled and recovered to provide valuable resources including energy. We look forward to continuing our dialogue with local residents about our proposal for a new AD plant in Pontypool later this month.”
Shanks has been shortlisted for the municipal food waste contracts for both the Heads of the Valleys Waste Partnership and the South West Wales Waste Partnership. Shanks will be holding further public exhibitions on 26th March at New Inn Community Hall, Panteg and 27th March at Panteg House, Griffithstown to explain the latest proposals in the planning application to local residents and other interested parties and to discuss the changes made to the scheme.
The planning application can be viewed at: Torfaen County Borough Council, Reception, Floor 4, Planning and Public Protection, County Hall, Cwmbran NP44 2WN. The Planning Application Reference Number is 12/P/00100.
To receive your free sample copy of Food & Drink Business News Europe please complete Form on our Subscription Page.
