HELPING TO CLEAN UP OUR COAST AND COUNTRYSIDE
Last week, I was fortunate enough to be invited on a tour of Grundon's Materials Recovery Facility (MRFs) and Energy From Waste Facility (EFW) at Colnbrook near Slough. As part of a group from The Felix Project (a food charity where I volunteer when in London), after our Health and Safety talk and donning our PPE, we walked up the the huge site which opened in 2012. Vehicles are continually arriving through the day with mixed recycling as well as general waste. The first area we saw was the yard where a crane was picking up metal units including filing cabinets which were crushed down while another area had bales of paper, plastics, and cans etc which were also baled up to take off site to be reprocessed and turned into new products. Once inside the building, we watched the process as recyclables travelled along conveyor belts where paper and card travels along while other recyclables drop through to a lower belt where a team of people were sorting any non-recyclables from the belt before the next area where a series of magnets collect any ferrous metals while another sensor recognises non-ferous metals including drinks cans. Glass is then passed through a sensor which will be diverted to another collection point. From here plastics are recognised by sensors where a blast of air magically sends them into the right direction whilst the remaining non-recyclables carry on their journey. We walked to another part of the building where we got a lift up to the 5th floor to see the control room and where we could see the EFW operations. In a corner of the room, a man was sitting on an 'armchair' with joysticks doing what many people do on holiday! If you imagine one of that machines full of soft toys which you to try to win by putting a coin in to operate the crane but on a much bigger scale, this member of the team has a job sitting there and doing the same except his huge crane with giant claws can lift a load of waste equivalent to a refuse lorry full which is carried across to the incinerator and released to burn at around 1200c. The waste which is burned generates 37 megawatts every hour into the National Grid which is enough to power about 50,000 homes. Another transformer diverts electricity back into the plant to power itself. If like I did, you have concerns about air pollution from the burning of this waste, the burned remains are sorted to get any metal items which might have ended up in the incinerator then the ash is graded to use larger pieces for road building while smaller pieces will be used in building blocks. Another filter in the chimney will remove any pollutants such as lime before the remaining discharge is released into the air which, you will be amazed to know is better air than is already there! Tests were done which found air quality in that area was polluted by Heathrow and other industries but the emissions from the Grundon site help to improve this. There are 7 Grundon Waste Transfer Stations around southern England which you may have seen one or two of near the M5 or M4. I've wondered what went on inside so was pleased to find out. I hope you know a bit about it now too! You can find out more on their website at Grundon.com plus some videos on YouTube.
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AuthorBorn in West Somerset, I have always been proud of where I live and want everyone else to enjoy it too! Archives
September 2022
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