The Need For Underground Waste Disposal
Your “household rubbish” that cannot be recycled is transferred to Energy from Waste (EfW) plants such as that on Haverton Hill Road. The materials are burned to produce heat and electricity. This process produces 2 residues, bottom ash which can be used in construction processes and fly ash.
The fly ash or Air Pollution Control Residue (APCR) is captured by filters within the plant and has no useful function. The material is classed hazardous due to the presence of heavy metals.
APCR is moved from EfW plants by bulk powder lorry for transportation to a final disposal facility.
Materials will be received at the Billingham Surface Site Facility, where deliveries will be taken inside the building and off-loaded into silos.
There is a drive to deposit less waste in surface landfill sites and this is to be achieved by the provision of more Energy from Waste facilities (EFW). These will generate more ash residues that will require underground disposal solution.
The concept of underground disposal of waste materials is not new. It has been normal practice for many years in Germany and America, where contaminated land and drilling muds are routinely disposed to underground cavities. It is an under-used means of waste disposal in the UK.
The government has recently shifted its position to support Energy from Waste as an acceptable waste treatment option, in order to facilitate the diversion of waste from landfill sites.
PROSPECTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT
Demand for waste disposal capacity is increasing rapidly:
- the UK waste market is likely to become increasingly uncertain as readily available landfill space diminishes with time.
- demand for disposal solutions is being driven by the need to reduce reliance on traditional landfill disposal and also the increasing move to EFW as a means of disposal.
- the UK is at a strategic disadvantage compared to other European countries because it has so little waste disposal capacity compared to other European countries, at a time when the need for such facilities is growing.
Billingham is ideally located because:
- the Anhydrite Mine provides suitable and extensive space within anhydrite deposits, which are stable and will remain dry facilitating safe disposal of waste.
- of its location in one of the largest industrial conurbations and waste producing areas in the UK.
The site is located at Billingham, which is in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees on the north bank of the River Tees, approximately five miles from the east coast.
Billingham lies within the Teesside conurbation which includes Middlesbrough and Stockton-on-Tees, both of which are situated within five miles to the south, as shown on the location map.
The former ICI sites at Billingham and Wilton are in close proximity to the mine site and form part of the UK’s largest chemical and waste producing clusters in the country.
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