Press release - 07 Dec 2009

Government climate change official visit SITA UK’s Kirklees energy-from-waste facility

A newly appointed top-ranking civil servant in the Department of Energy and Climate Change has visited SITA UK’s energy-from-waste (EfW) facility in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.

Phil Wynn Owen, the Director General with responsibility for climate change and consumer support, toured the facility accompanied by representatives of the Government Office for Yorkshire and The Humber, Go East and Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council.

The tour was part of a fact-finding visit to the region organised for Mr Owen, who only recently moved to the DECC from another government department.

SITA UK Regional Manager, Glennys Robinson, was delighted that the official party included a tour of the EfW facility in their busy itinerary. She said: “SITA UK and Kirklees Council have worked closely together for many years and are examining new collaborations for the future. Although the visit was not directly to do with our plans, it was good to be able to show what we do now and raise ideas that we have in mind.”

“Mr Owen fully recognised the importance of SITA UK’s business. We were able to demonstrate how the diversion of waste from landfill, coupled with the creation of energy from waste, is playing a significant part in the UK’s waste and energy strategies.

“It was very significant that Mr Owen and his colleagues started their Yorkshire visit at the EfW facility, where they were able to see for themselves how the process works and the contribution it is making to improving waste management, creating green energy and contributing to the low carbon economy.

“This facility was designed to the very highest environmentally-friendly standards – far higher than the toughest European requirements – and the energy from waste process is an efficient and green way of dealing with waste that simply cannot be re-used or recycled.”

About SITA UK’s Kirklees energy-from-waste (EfW) facility

The EfW facility opened in 2002 as part of a 25-year contract with Kirklees Council, which began in 1998.  Its aim is to assist the council in achieving a minimum 60 per cent diversion of waste from landfill.

The waste comes mainly from household and civic collections from the borough’s principal towns of Huddersfield, Batley and Dewsbury. With a population of 390,000 people, it is one of the largest unitary authorities in the UK.

The plant can handle 136,000 tonnes of waste per year, producing 11MW of electricity to the National Grid, sufficient to provide the annual power needed for 15,000 homes. Since opening, the facility has diverted over a million tonnes of waste from landfill and generated around 534,260MW of power.

The facility recently opened a visitor centre to help explain the processes involved at the EfW, wider waste management practices and the facilities role in renewable energy and combating climate change.

An additional 25,000 tonnes of recyclable material is processed in an adjacent Materials Recycling Facility.

Bottom ash, which is a by-product of the EfW process, is taken to SITA UK’s ash plant in the Tees Valley, where it is recycled and used as an aggregate for road construction

More than 70 people work at SITA UK’s Kirklees site.