Europe

Viridor has categorised the fire as a ‘significant incident’. This means it is considered less serious than a ‘major incident’, which would require it to be reported to the Health and Safety Executive as a ‘dangerous occurrence’ under 2013 RIDDOR regulations. Four fire engines and around 25 firefighters attended the scene. In their incident report Viridor wrote: “The Beddington WTS fire was a significant event that was managed safely and responsibly through a partnership of the London Fire Brigade and Viridor Operations team with further assistance from the South London Waste Partnership and Veolia.”   Read more

The plant, which deals with all of Dundee city’s refuse, is expected to be closed for several weeks as 350 tonnes of waste are removed from the refuse-derived fuel (RDF) store in which the fire started. The city’s waste will be temporarily diverted to alternative facilities whilst the plant is closed. This is the fifth fire to hit the plant in five years. Last June a fire broke out in the transfer station only 10 months after a blaze damaged the hydraulic systems after an oil leak. An investigation was also launched in 2006 after two separate fires started in January and October, the latter of which damaged the same storeroom that was affected in this most recent fire.   Read more Yet another fire at the Dundee Waste-to-Energy plant Fire crews were called to waste disposal plant Dundee Energy Recycling on Sunday evening. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said it was called to the plant in Forties Road at around 7.25pm after fire broke out in one of the buildings. Two fire appliances attended and crews took just under an hour to get the incident under control. Police Scotland said the fire was not being treated as suspicious. It is understood it may have been sparked by an electrical fault. Read Article

A Danish fiasco – Amager Bakke, the billion dollar Copenhagen incineration plant. “Today, we import waste with high plastic content in order to [use the excess] capacity at the incineration plants, with increasing CO2 emissions as a result.” – Dan Jorgensen, Denmark’s climate minister. Zerowaste Europe exposes questionable decision-making processes, poor project planning, and economic and environmental failures resulting from the €534 million Amager Bakke.   LEARN MORE

Journeyman Pictures presents – Burn or Not to Burn—the hidden truth behind Sweden’s waste disposal infrastructure. In Sweden, waste incineration plants convert excess and non-recycled rubbish into energy. The Swedish Government classifies this process as recycling. But is waste incineration for energy recovery sustainable? Despite having 34 incinerators, Sweden’s waste disposal infrastructure accounts for a mere 4% of the country’s total electricity generation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caw-969W-D4

Following a devastating fire at its Rozenburg plant, which destroyed the power plant section of the facility, WtE company AVR has had to divert the incoming municipal solid waste away from the plant. When operational, the plant processes 1.3 million tonnes of waste per year. The diverted waste will be taken to a landfill in Tilburg and stored until the plant is again operational. Read Article Here

When a fire broke out at a recycling plant in Northwestern England on Saturday afternoon, authorities issued a crucial safety advisory to the residents. They were asked to keep their windows and doors closed, a measure that was not to be taken lightly, as it was vital in preventing the spread of smoke and potential harm.Local media reported that fire crews with Humberside Fire and Rescue arrived at the Energy Works plant at around 1:17 p.m. to find smoke issuing from vents on the side of the building. Additional reinforcements soon joined the four fire trucks in the initial response. READ MORE

A chemical reaction probably caused a deadly explosion at a waste treatment plant in Germany, a provisional report has found. Seven people were killed in the blast in the Chempark industrial area of Leverkusen on July 27, and a further 31 were injured. Storage tanks containing chlorinated solvents caught fire in the waste processing centre of the Currenta company, sending a massive plume of black smoke into the air. On the same day as the Leverkusen plant disaster, the Waimate District Council received a pitch from South Island Resource Recovery Limited to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District. SIRRL director Kevin Stratful told the council that concerns regarding W-t-E were a thing of the past. READ MORE

A waste management company has been handed a 510,000 pound fine for illegally storing thousands of tonnes of dangerous combustible waste. Winters Haulage Limited, based in Hitchen, Hertfordshire, was storing refuse-derived fuel (RDF), (combustible waste burned for fuel in energy-from-waste facilities).Liam Patrick Winters, the company’s director, denied there was a fire risk from the RDF. However, an assessment by Cambridge Fire and Rescue Services led to creating an emergency plan due to the risk of acrid fumes to nearby schools, nurseries and homes, all within 2.5 kilometres of the site. REL and ERP Group’s illegal storage of waste REL and ERP Group had been illegally storing baled waste that they called refuse-derived fuel (RDF) in and around Christchurch for several years. REL had been storing waste near Belfast in North Canterbury before ECan intervened with an abatement notice to remove the waste. ERP Group, on the other hand, continued their illegal waste storage around Christchurch for several years. The situation took a turn for the worse when the company went into voluntary liquidation, leaving its landlords with a staggering burden. They were left to deal with thousands of tonnes of waste and a cleanup that is estimated to cost millions, a financial blow that could have been avoided. Read more about ERP and REL