Select a region
After years and years of debate, discussions and decisions, the first boat load of Guernsey's rubbish has sailed away, heading for England first and then Sweden.
It sailed off yesterday, marking another milestone in the introduction of the island's multi million pound waste strategy which so far seems to be going well.
Test bales of ‘refuse derived fuel’ had been produced at the new waste management facility at Longue Hougue since last month, but this was the first time any shipments left the island, with two tanks loaded and sent off yesterday.
The refuse derived fuel, or RDF, is made from general commercial and household waste which is mechanically shredded at Guernsey's transfer station with some residual metal removed before being compacted and baled. These are then loaded onto trailers, ready for shipping via scheduled roll-on, roll-off freight services to the UK.
Pictured: Waste is being treated in a different way under Guernsey's new waste strategy.
First the two tanks were going to travel to Poole aboard Channel Seaways MV Valliant, then they are being taken on a 40 mile journey by road to a treatment facility near Warminster, in Wiltshire where it will be put through a special process.
As previously widely reported, Guernsey has signed a contract with international waste export specialist Geminor UK. It's now been made clear that the company is responsible for the RDF from the moment that it leaves the transfer station in St Sampson, right through to its processing at one of Europe’s heat and energy recovery facilities.
While Guernsey's waste is headed for Sweden, to be used in a "high efficiency energy recovery facility at Jonkoping" it will be travelling there alongside waste from the UK, using Geminor’s existing logistics network.
Any materials left after processing in Sweden, commonly known as fly ash and bottom ash, will be dealt with by the operator of the treatment facility. That is believed to have been one of the deciding factors which won Geminor the contract, when compared with Jersey's tender which reportedly would have seen Guernsey have to deal with all of its own fly ash which would have been returned to the island.
Geminor’s proposal was also understood to be the cheapest offered and scored highest on an environmental assessment, despite the longer travel distances involved overall.
Pictured top: The new waste transfer facility at Longue Hougue.
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.