News: Minister in Rotherham to visit pioneering waste plant

Charles Hendry, Minister of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is visiting Sterecycle's "world first" waste treatment plant in Rotherham today.

The Minister is undertaking a one day tour of Yorkshire to consult with local communities, businesses and councils on the growth of the area's low carbon economy and the revised draft Energy National Policy Statements.



Sterecycle is a clean technology company that uses a patented "steam processing" method called autoclaving to treat household and commercial "black-bag" waste thereby reducing the amount sent to landfill by up to 70%. The Rotherham plant is the world's first commercial scale autoclave waste treatment facility and has been operational since August 2008.

Sterecycle Rotherham is assisting both local authorities and businesses to improve their green credentials by increasing recycling performance and reducing the amount of waste they send to landfill. It has also boosted green jobs in the area employing 41 local people which will increase to 57 in 2011 when the Templeborough plant's expansion is complete.

Tom Shields, Sterecycle, CEO said: "Autoclaving as a waste treatment process is safe, cheap to build and our experience to date is that planning permission can be achieved within six months. And it delivers high rates of resource recovery.

"South Yorkshire's local councils and businesses recognise the benefits of using our technology to treat their waste. It not only decreases the landfill tax payable by our customers but reduces methane emissions which are 23 times more damaging to the environment than CO2.

"The demand has been so high that we’re increasing the Rotherham plant's capacity from 100,000 tonnes per annum to 240,000 tonnes per annum so that we can continue to help drive down the amount of waste going to Yorkshire landfills."

Sterecycle works with Sheffield-based training and recruitment solutions company A4e to create local jobs for local people as well as work experience opportunities for A4e's job seekers. A4e Employer Services Manager, Kirstie Royce said: "We work with thousands of employers across the country and internationally but it's particularly exciting for us and our customers to work with Sterecycle and secure jobs with a company leading the world on such an important issue.

"We're delighted to have placed eight customers in new jobs with Sterecycle within 12 months, all who are now working at the cutting edge of renewable energy technology, and we look forward to supporting with more opportunities as this company expands."

Sterecycle are set to invest further in their Rotherham facility by creating a heat and power generation plant on the Templeborough site. The firm recently secured planning permission to create a biomass plant with combined heat and power (CHP) technology on the site and are also working on plans for an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant which could be positioned alongside a smaller CHP.

Sterecycle website

Images: Sterecycle