West London Waste Authority
What happens to your waste?
Much of what we consider as waste can often be recycled, composted or reused in some other.
Unfortunately there are still many items and materials that have no further economic or practical use. These truly are ‘waste’. The term used for these items is residual waste. So what happens to this residual waste?
- Collection
- Transfer Station
- Landfill Site
- Energy from Waste
- Household Reuse and Recycling Centres
- Composting
Collection
Your local council collects your rubbish, usually in a black sack or a wheelie bin. They then deliver what they have collected to us so that we can arrange to have it disposed of safely and effectively.
Most of what your council collect from you is taken to one of our two rail transfer stations; one is located in South Ruislip, the other is in Brentford.
Transfer Station
At the transfer station the waste is tipped from the refuse truck. It is then packed into sealed containers. Each container holds about 12 tonnes of waste. These containers are then loaded on to railway wagons. There is enough room on the railway wagons for 66 full containers.
Not long ago there was so much rubbish waste we could fill enough containers to completely load about 11 trains per week. Now, thanks to you recycling, composting and reducing waste, this has been reduced to 7 trains per week and is still falling.
Landfill site
The trains leave our sites at night. The South Ruislip train goes to a landfill site at Calvert in Buckinghamshire. The Brentford train goes to a landfill site at Sutton Courtenay in Oxfordshire. Both landfill sites are owned and operated by a company called Waste Recycling Group (WRG).
Once at the landfill site WRG unload the containers from the railway wagons. They are put on to large all-terrain vehicles and transported to a large hole in the ground, the landfill. Here the containers are tipped out. Once empty the containers are put back on to the railway wagons and the train returns them to us so that the process can start all over again.
We also have a road transfer station located in Park Royal North West London. This site deals with other types of waste that are collected by your council such street cleansing and bulky items. A sorting process takes place at this site to ensure that we can recover any recyclable materials that may still be in the waste. Any waste that is left is taken in trailers by articulated lorries to a WRG landfill site near Bletchley in Buckinghamshire.
Energy from Waste
As well as landfill we also send a small proportion, currently about 5%, of the rubbish for treatment at an Energy from Waste (EfW) facility. This facility is located close to Heathrow Airport and is run by a company called Lakeside Energy from Waste Ltd. Our arrangement is with one of the co-owners of the Lakeside facility, Viridor Waste Management.
The EfW facility offers a modern treatment process that means your waste is used to generate energy in the form of both heat and power (electricity). This energy is also used instead of coal, oil or gas to produce it.
Over the next few years the amount of waste going to Lakeside will increase to about 20% of the total residual waste we manage.
Household Reuse and Recycling Centres
As well as dealing with the residual waste collected from your door step we also manage the waste from the Household Reuse and Recycling Centres or HRRC’s (your council may use a different name for them, such as civic amenity Sites). In the West London area there are currently 9 HRRC’s, which are operated by your local council.
Most of the residual waste from the HRRC’s is taken by road for landfill disposal at various sites operated by WRG in either Buckinghamshire or Bedfordshire.
Composting
As well as residual waste we also arrange for the treatment of waste collected for composting. The treatment process used depends on the type of waste your council collects for composting.
Windrow Composting
Windrow Composting is the most basic of the processes that we use. It’s the method generally used to compost garden waste. The garden waste is put in to long heaps called Windrows. It is turned frequently until it breaks down naturally to form a material that can be used to improve the soil. Depending upon conditions the total process takes around 12 weeks.
We have arrangements with a number of companies that provide facilities that compost your garden waste this way. The majority of our Windrow composting is done by WRG at their site in Sutton Courtenay Oxfordshire. We deliver it to them in containers on the same train that takes the residual waste.
In Vessel Composting
If your council collects organic kitchen (food) waste mixed in with your garden waste it has to be dealt with through In Vessel Composting (IVC). This process is carried out in covered tunnels where the composting process can be better controlled to ensure all of the organic material properly breaks down in to compost. The majority of our In Vessel Composting is done by West London Composting, in Harefield.
Anaerobic Digestion
Some of our councils collect organic kitchen waste on its own. This kitchen waste can be used to generate heat and power as well as producing a fertiliser for use by farmers. The process used is called Anaerobic Digestion (AD).
Kitchen waste is mixed to form a porridge-like material. This material is then heated and stirred in a large sealed airless container. The natural process that occurs produces methane and carbon dioxide gasses. These gasses are then used as a fuel to generate heat and power. The liquid that remains at the end of the process is called dig estate and is used as a fertiliser. At the moment all of our AD is undertaken by BiogenGreenfinch at their plant to the north of London.