Parc makes good use of all the rubbish in your wheelie bin

Mar 19 2008 By The Journal

COUNTY Durham-based Premier Waste Management is driving development of new technologies to recycle and recover waste. One of the largest independent waste management companies in the UK, Premier Waste believes rather than looking for ways to dispose of waste we should be developing systems to reuse and recover, and as a result developed the Parc system.

The Premier Advanced Recycling Centre (Parc) treats unsegregated household waste – the rubbish in your wheelie bin.

In operation since 2002, a third Parc tower was built last year as part of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ New Technologies Demonstrator programme, indicating just how successful this technology is.

The bio-processing technology, based at Premier’s Thornley site, is treating 62,000 tonnes of local authority household waste and is capable of diverting up to 85% of it away from landfill.

The process segregates glass, metal and plastics for recycling and transforms the biodegradable waste into a compost like output – a valuable soil conditioning product which is currently being used on brownfield sites for regeneration and the growing of bio-fuels.

Twelve Parc towers could also be built at Premier’s new facility at Monument Park, Washington.

This site has been developed to offer North East businesses a modern and viable recycling and processing plant for their waste, and enables Premier to process and pre-treat waste from commercial customers in the region.

From October last year, a new European Union directive came in to force which ensures all businesses pre-treat their waste.

Premier’s Washington facility meets and exceeds these requirements, with as much as 50% of all waste being diverted from landfill.