The role of waste management and energy from waste in a circular economy SITA UKs proposed Severnsid

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The role of waste management and energy from
waste in a circular economy- SITA UKs proposed
Severnside development

• Sept 2009
• Stuart Hayward-Higham

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SITA UK

• 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

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SITA UKs 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

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What is waste management ?
Large / small
Large / small
Large / small
TRADING
SEPARATION
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A plethora of potential solutions
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What is a circular economy
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Solution preferences
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Why change the existing solutions ?

• 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.

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Prevention, minimisation re-use

• 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.

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Role of recycling
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Recycling

• 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

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Recyclings contribution to sustainability
Paper
100
Aluminium
80
Plastics and Iron
60
Energy saved when products are made from
recycled materials
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Glass
20
0
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But

• 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.

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Energy from Waste ?

• 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
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Energy from Waste methods

• 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 .

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What does an EfW (incinerator) look like inside?
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Inside Moving grate combustion zone
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Outside look
Small
Large
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Severnside Proposal

• 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

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Site location
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Location efficiency Local embedment

• 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

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What role does EFW have in a circular economy ?
An essential one because not all waste can be
re-used or recycled Its an essential way of
recovering the remaining embedded benefits of
residual waste
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Thank you

• Stuart Hayward-Higham
• Technical Director
• SITA UK Ltd
• Stuart.hayward-higham_at_sita.co.uk
• 44 7970 233747