The plant will help create zero wastet by 2020

Four Ashes will lead the way in zero waste push

Waste chiefs at Staffordshire County Council have announced that Four Ashes Industrial Estate is their preferred location to build a state-of-the-art clean energy from waste facility in southern Staffordshire.

Final discussions were still underway last week to conclude the selection process but today information packs arrive on the doorstep of every household and business within a four kilometer radius of the site.

The Four Ashes site has been chosen as it meets all the criteria:

• it's close to where the waste is being produced in southern Staffordshire
• it's an industrial site with well established heavy industrial use
• it's well connected via established main roads to the transport network

The site will deliver the maximum benefits for the people and tax payers of Staffordshire with the minimum impacts for the local community.

The move is the next step in Staffordshire's drive for Zero Waste to Landfill 2020, a new approach which aims to increase recycling and composting from below 40% to over 50%, and rejects land hungry and increasingly costly landfill. It focuses on maximum recycling with energy generation from the leftovers.

It harnesses the tried and tested technology which will secure the most efficient and cost effective route for dealing with the element of Staffordshire's growing mountain of waste which can't be recycled.

There's already an Energy from Waste plant in Stoke on Trent which has been operating for the last decade generating energy for thousands of homes.  This has helped north Staffordshire cut its landfill dependency.

The team at Staffordshire County Council are now moving ahead to make a planning application for the Four Ashes site, harnessing the latest generation of clean combustion technology.

Right across Europe this technology is the choice of the most environmentally aware nations including Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Switzerland. There are similar operations right in the heart of Paris and Vienna.    

The operation will generate 18 megawatts of power - enough to power about 20,000 homes.

Even with increased recycling the Government believes new waste treatment facilities are critical to reducing the UK's reliance on landfill and avoiding the increasing costs imposed by EU fines for missing landfill reduction targets.

The approach has been reinforced by the summer long public consultation on Staffordshire's councils' policy to move towards Zero Waste to Landfill by 2020, which clearly marked up Energy from Waste as a key element of the package.

Over 90 per cent of over 1,100 respondents, from all walks of life, and from all over Staffordshire, said they thought maximising recycling in tandem with Energy from Waste was the most environmentally responsible way to go in dealing with Staffordshire's growing waste mountain.

The Energy from Waste plant will be more environmentally friendly than landfill - reducing climate changing CO2 and methane emissions. In the summer people thought the environmental argument was even more important than the undoubted cost benefits to Staffordshire tax payers.

Waste chiefs have set up a special helpline for any residents who have any questions or concerns - on 0845 300 4430.

There's also a dedicated website - www.staffsprojectw2r.info  

The team are also organising a series of surgeries in the area so that residents can ask questions face to face. Local people can register for a slot by ringing the information line on 0845 300 4430. 

Staffordshire County Council's Cabinet Member Councillor John Wakefield said Staffordshire was taking a responsible attitude to dealing with the growing waste problem.

"We have a responsibility to the local residents, the environment and the tax payer to deal with this growing problem now, rather than putting it off. Landfill is increasingly unacceptable to local communities and costly to the tax payer.

"Our summer long consultation gave everyone the chance to have their say about the solution. The vast majority supported our clearly stated strategy of maximising recycling and generating energy from the residual waste.

"The technology we want to use is tried and tested and used in communities across some of the world's most environmentally aware and developed nations.

"The Four Ashes site has been chosen to minimise disruption to the local community whilst achieving significant benefits for Staffordshire residents as a whole," he said.

Page Last Modified: 14/11/2007 10:40:45

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