Recycling at the Facility
The combustion of 190,000 tonnes of waste gives rise to approximately 40,000 tonnes of Incinerator Bottom Ash (IBA), comprising mainly clinker, brick, rubble, soils, glass, ceramics, and metals. This material is cooled in a quench bath and conveyed to a storage/process hall in the main building of the facility. The material is processed with an array of crushers, screens, magnets, and eddy current separators to recover ferrous and non-ferrous metals, and grade the remaining material for use as a substitute for virgin aggregate in construction and civil engineering industries.
The facility has the ability to capture and harvest rainwater from the main buildings, which is used in the process and administration block (for toilet flushing etc.) thereby reducing the demand for mains fresh water. In addition, using ‘dirty’ water from sources such as yard/hard-standing areas to quench the hot ashes from combustion leads to further savings on mains water demand.