Recovery

For many years it has been recognised that landfill should only be used when all other options for treatment have been exhausted. Greater emphasis should be given to embracing the circular economy, utilising one of the ‘three R’s’ – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  When all of these have been exhausted then the opportunity to recover energy should be explored before landfill is considered.

In Worcestershire and Herefordshire, great progress had been made with the first three R’s. The next stage was to deal more effectively with the waste left after recycling and composting, referred to as ‘residual waste’. 

The technology of Energy-from-Waste is a tried and tested method of capturing the energy value of residual waste. There are over 40 Energy-from-Waste plants in operation or under construction in the UK, recovering energy from around 9.96 million tonnes of residual domestic, commercial and industrial waste per year.
Construction of our Energy from Waste facility began in May 2014 and in March 2017 we formally took ownership of EnviRecover. EnviRecover was formally opened in May 2017 by HRH The Duke of Gloucester.  Located on Hartlebury Trading Estate, just outside Kidderminster, the facility processes the residual waste from households in the two counties to generate electricity.    

As you would expect, the facility is fully compliant with the stringent requirements of the Environment Agency, who routinely inspect the facility

EnviRecover has become a significant feature in the economic landscape of Worcestershire. It provides some 40 permanent jobs across a wide range of skills.  Up to 400 people were employed during construction of the facility. The team running EnviRecover cover the operation, maintenance, administration and compliance of the plant.  In September 2017 we offered a new position to a local apprentice, providing the opportunity to gain first-hand experience of renewable power generation energy source.