End of an Era as Waste Receives New Life Being Transformed to Energy

Viridor (UK) is proud to announce that after 35 years of service its Ardley landfill site in Oxfordshire will no longer be taking non-hazardous waste.

The Ardley landfill has seen several interesting events in its lifetime, most significantly the discovery of dinosaur footprints. The tracks have been carefully covered using landfill engineering to ensure their preservation. But before this work was completed, casts of the tracks were taken and these can now be found at the Oxfordshire County Museum in Woodstock.

In Oxfordshire, non-hazardous waste will now be taken into Viridor’s adjacent state of the art Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) marking the end of an era.  The £205million facility has capacity to treat 300,000 tonnes of waste per year, sufficient to treat all of Oxfordshire’s residual municipal waste. The waste will be transformed into 26 megawatts of electricity, generating enough electricity for about 38,000 homes.

The Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC), which Viridor operates on behalf of Oxfordshire County Council, will remain open for local residents to use and is not affected by the closure of Ardley landfill.

In another significant milestone, its Wangford landfill site in Suffolk will also close to all waste after 23 years of operation.

In Suffolk, Wangford landfill provided an essential service for disposal of North East Suffolk’s domestic and commercial waste. The site closed to waste acceptance on 31st March and will now undergo a period of restoration which will be completed by the end of 2016. Waste will now be re-directed to nearby Masons landfill, also operated by Viridor.

Henry Austin, Area Unit Manager for Viridor, says: “Both Ardley and Wangford landfill sites have been an important part of the waste infrastructure in their regions for many years. But it’s time to recognise that we should be looking at our non-recyclable waste as a resource that can be put to use. The closure of a landfill such as Ardley is an important milestone in the ongoing efforts to drive value from our waste hierarchy. Using residual waste to generate electricity is ensuring we’re maximising every available opportunity and will see counties like Oxfordshire further reduce its carbon footprint.”

Viridor Credits have used the landfill communities fund from the operations at Ardley landfill to distribute funding to thirty-nine projects in the Oxfordshire area. These have included all sorts of activities requested by the local community, including a community piano, play areas, roofing and restoration projects as well as sports facilities and equipment.

Oxfordshire local residents can still apply for funding Viridor Credits. The closing date for main and large grant scheme applications is 5 August 2015. Thereafter applications can only be submitted for small grants which are up to the value of £20,000.

In Suffolk, Viridor Credits have distributed over £4.5 million from the landfill communities fund associated to the Wangford landfill. The money has been used in more than 340 community, heritage and biodiversity projects throughout Suffolk. Recent awards in the Wangford Landfill funding area include £12,849 to The Cut Arts Centre in Halesworth, £8,706 to Hen Reedbeds Nature Reserve in Reydon and £7,938 to St John the Baptist Church in Shadingfield.

Due to the closure of the Wangford Landfill site, the Viridor Credits Wangford funding area will be closing too. The last closing date for applications in this area of Suffolk is 6 May. The Masons landfill funding area will be unaffected by this closure and will continue.

For more information, or to apply for funding from either of these landfill communities funds, visit www.viridor-credits.co.uk