Wakefield Waste

The new Wakefield Waste recycling project has been awarded by Wakefield District Council to Shanks and Kier Infrastructure and Overseas are the main contractor. Six buildings will be constructed in South Kirby, West Yorkshire, on the site which will process waste collected by Wakefield council each year.

The residual waste treatment and recycling plant will transform waste into valuable products and green energy. The Wakefield waste plant includes an autoclave-assisted anaerobic digestion plant, which is designed to undertake recycling and composting, as well as having refuse-derived fuel capabilities.

The £80 million waste treatment plant forms part of an estimated £750 million waste management PFI contract, signed between Shanks Group plc and Wakefield City Council. At capacity the facility will process up to 230,000 tonnes per annum of municipal solid waste, which will help to increase the local authority’s landfill diversion rate towards 90%.

The facility will segregate a variety of materials from residual waste for recycling, including metals, some plastics, aggregates and glass. It will then sort the remaining waste into an organic fraction and a fraction to produce refuse derived fuel. The fuel will be sent to a multi-fuel plant being developed by SSE at the site of the nearby coal-fired Ferrybridge Power Station.

The organic fraction of the residual waste will meanwhile be treated using an autoclave. The autoclave part of the facility will sterilise organic material that cannot be separated out and recycled before being fed into the 65,000 tonnes per annum anaerobic digestion plant, which produces biogas for renewable energy generation.

Billington Structures are providing the structural steel framework for 7 buildings across 2 sites with a weight of approximately 1,200 tonnes of steel. In addition to the recycling plant there will also be a visitor centre on the site to be used for the purpose of waste education and the promotion of waste minimisation. This project will have a positive effect on the local economy by generating permanent jobs and increasing the recycling rate.