The role of waste management and energy from waste in a circular economy- SITA UK’s proposed Severnside development Sept 2009 Stuart Hayward-Higham

The role of waste management and energy from waste in a circular economy-

SITA UK’s proposed Severnside development

Sept 2009Stuart Hayward-Higham

SITA UK I 2 Copyright SITA UK Ltd

SITA UK

19/04/23 I

- SITA UK is a recycling and resource management company

- We serve over 12 million customers, and- Over 30,000 businesses.

- Handle nearly 11 million tonnes of material

- Of which in excess of 3 million tonnes are recycled- Over 1 million tonnes is used for energy production

- We produce in excess of 1 million MWhrs of electricity

- Produce around 3% of all the green electricity in the UK

- Employ over 6000 employees across the country

SITA UK I 3 Copyright SITA UK Ltd19/04/23 I

SITA UK’s vision

We want to live in a society where there

is no more waste

In the future there will be no more waste as materials will be viewed as products or raw

materials


Large / small

Large / small

Large / small

What is waste management ?

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CU

STO

MER

COLLECTION

WA

STE

C&I

C&D

Mono

MSW

Mono

MonoHW

C&I

RECYCLING TREATMENT

WASTE STREAM MANAGEMENT

TRADING IN PRODUCTS AND ENERGY

QUALITYSELECTIVITY

Creatingvalue

Secondary Resources

Market

Secondary Resources

Market

CLIE

NTS

Industrial Commercial

HW

Med

C & D, Soil

ReducingCosts

RESOURCE MANAGEMENTSWITCHBOARD

Local Authorities

TRADING

SEPARATION


A plethora of potential solutions


What is a circular economy


Solution preferences

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Anthony Durston


Why change the existing solutions ?

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- Capacity- Existing landfill capacity is reducing and replacements are

insufficient.

- Cost- Landfill tax, transport costs ( as existing landfill solutions become

more scarce ), carbon etc all raise the cost of existing solutions and drive waste into the minimisation, recycling and recovery solutions

- Sustainability- There are better ways of treating most waste than by landfill,

however the replacement capacity is needed in a time period and scale to ensure that those who need waste management services are viably service options.


Prevention, minimisation & re-use

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- Prevention

- best of all and completely customer driven and controlled

- Minimisation

- Through education, buying patterns and efficient use. Very customer driven but advice available.

- Re-Use

- Encouraged through bring back or re sale – again customer driven but advice and end markets are available.


Role of recycling

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Recycling one tonne of …

Saves ……. And compared with manufacture from raw materials, avoids emissions of…

Newsprint The felling of 12 trees 1.3 – 1.7 tonnes of CO2 equivalents

Office paper The felling of 24 trees 1.3 – 1.7 tonnes of CO2 equivalents

Aluminium 5 tonnes of bauxite 5 – 12 tonnes of CO2 equivalents

Steel 1.5 tonnes of iron ore 1.0 – 1.3 tonnes of CO2 equivalents

Copper 10 t of copper ore 13 – 20 tonnes of CO2 equivalents

Glass 1.2 t of raw materials 0.6 tonnes of CO2 equivalents

Plastics 2,000 kg of oil 1.7 – 4.7 tonnes of CO2 equivalents

Biowaste as compost

200 kilogrammes of peat


Recycling

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- Collection

- Separate at source is best, separate later is possible.

- Sorting

- From simple magnets and consolidation though to complex sorting, separation and refinement

- End market

- Sent to reprocessors to be made into new cans, bottles etc

SITA UK I 12 Copyright SITA UK LtdSept 09

0%

80%

20%

60%

Paper

Glass

Aluminium

Plastics and Iron

Ene

rgy

save

d w

hen

prod

ucts

ar

e m

ade

from

rec

ycle

d m

ater

ials

40%

100%

Recycling’s contribution to sustainability


But……

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- Not all waste can be avoided or recycled which leaves us with extracting energy or landfill.

- Our preference is to extract the energy.

- To produce electricity, gas or heat and use it in the most efficient manner.

- Location of plants is essential to marry with the markets or waste arising and potential energy and heat users.

- We recover some of the energy from the organic landfill wastes but not as efficiently nor as completely than by energy from waste.


Energy from Waste ?

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- Why make energy ?

- With the potential national supply issues over the next 20 years and instability in international markets, the recovery of energy from waste has the opportunity to make a significant contribution to national need.

- Recovering energy from waste is a sustainable solution for the treatment of the residual fraction of the waste left over after recycling/composting/pre-treatment.

From Oakdene Hollins report 2005


Energy from Waste methods

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- Combustion to create steam and then electricity.

- Gasification/pyrolysis (Gasification is proposed by the Cyclamax development) which converts the waste to a gas and then combusts the gas to make electricity.

- Anaerobic digestion – biological conversion of the organic fraction of waste to a methane gas and then combustion to make electricity or the gas (after clean up) for vehicle fuel .


What does an EfW (incinerator) look like inside?

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Inside – Moving grate combustion zone

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Outside look

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Small

Large


Severnside Proposal

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- 400ktpa facility - From a market in excess of 1.1M tonnes per annum (tpa)

- Energy- Sufficient for around 50,000 homes- 32 MW of electrical output

- Location- Good location for treating local waste- Delivery possible through road and rail- Near potential users of the heat from the plant

- Community- 200 jobs through the construction phase- 50 jobs in the plant


Site location

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Location efficiency & Local embedment

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- Transport – good road and rail access

- Local waste – helping divert some local waste from landfill to more productive use

- Local energy – using local fuel ( i.e. local waste) to make energy locally

- Local benefit – managing local waste with local facilities and employment


What role does EFW have in a circular economy ?

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An essential one because

not all waste can be re-used or recycled

It’s an essential way of recovering the remaining embedded benefits of residual waste


Thank you

• Stuart Hayward-Higham• Technical Director

• SITA UK Ltd• [email protected]• +44 7970 233747

Documents

The role of waste management and energy from waste in a circular economy- SITA UK’s proposed Severnside development Sept 2009 Stuart Hayward-Higham