From Bristol 24-7 www.bristol247.com
A £25m waste plant in Avonmouth has been officially opened by Olympic gold medal-winning rower Sir Steve Redgrave.
The mechanical biological treatment plant began operating in April and is one of two giant recycling centres in Avonmouth aimed at reducing the amount of waste going into landfill.
They will help Bristol City Council treach its targets of zero landfill waste by 2014 – a move that will save millions of pounds in landfill tax.
The new plant will compost suitable waste into a type of soil used for planting energy crops and improving brownfield land.
Owner New Earth Solutions has built the plant for the council and will sell on the compost.
A second plant, approved by the council on Wednesday, will open in 2013 and turn waste plastic into diesel, producing more than 4.2m litres of diesel a year.
Operated by waste management firm SITA UK, it will be fed by a plastics recovery facility on the same site. It will be the first of its kind in the UK and will use a process developed by Irish plastics-to-diesel company Cynar.
SITA signed a deal with Cynar to use its processes last November and aims to construct 10 such plants throughout the UK.
The council also gave permission for the existing recycling centre to be expanded to process about 100,000 tonnes of residual waste a year including around 80,000 tonnes of recyclable materials such as cans and plastic bottles.
The two plants and recycling centre form a new Bristol Resource Recovery Park.
SITA UK planning manager Gareth Phillips said: “Our plans to construct a Bristol Resource Recovery Park, that will extract energy and value from waste, and reduce the amount of rubbish that is sent to landfill, are now being advanced and will bring benefits to the environment and the local economy.
“This is a landmark decision which will put Avonmouth at the forefront of the very latest in resource management technology and bring new jobs to the area.”
