Winning The War on Waste

With a new £50m EcoPark development at the edge of the Metro Centre in Gateshead, Tyne & Wear, Graphite resources has become a World leader in the recycling of Waste. Lindsay Parker hears about its Plans for more Plants as it looks to tackle the War on Waste

"If you see any otters, don't be alarmed," says Richard Mair, a director at the waste treatment firm Graphite Resources as he points to a large fence. "That's where they like to run." Richard is striding towards the company's new headquarters at its five acre £50m EcoPark development at Derwenthaugh, near Blaydon. The pioneering waste treatment centre features the world's largest steam autoclaving technology and is due to open early in 2010. Inside the office space, the carpets are new and the air smells of fresh paint. Outside, even the otters have been taken care of.

"When we started work on the site we consulted Northumberland Wildlife Trust and ended up building a special fence which sinks quite deeply into the ground and allows the otters to run along the other side of the fence. The otters breed in Shibdon Pond then head off for the River Tyne so this route is like the A1 for otters."

Graphite has put the same care and attention to wildlife into its £50m development. The company was set up in 2002 by brothers William and Michael Thompson and later joined by fellow director Richard. The Thompsons set up Graphite after leaving their well established family business.

They came up with the idea for the autoclave facility after seeing the concept behind autoclaving at a trade show and later visiting a facility in South Wales. Richard had worked for more than 20 years in the chemical and power sectors and had extensive experience of developing and running energy businesses. It was an ideal partnership on all sides.

"I joined just before they got planning permission for the site in 2005," says Richard. "We had a public meeting in Blaydon in the old library where we had six people come to see us. Out of those, three of them wanted a job." The three directors also secured the support of Lord Kenneth Baker, former Conservative Secretary of State for the Environment, who is their non-executive chairman.

"When we were talking to the banks we were looking at different ways of financing the company which brought us into contact with Lord Baker," says Richard. "He asked us to give him a presentation on the company and he agreed to join us. He's been a great help already and takes an active part in the company. We're often on the telephone to him and we meet at least every two months."

The £50m project had substantial backing from Lehman Brothers Equity with debt funding from Allied Irish Bank and Alliance and Leicester Commercial Bank, now part of the Santander Group. Fortunately, the collapse of Lehman has not affected them and in July last year, the three giant autoclaves were shipped up the Tyne and carefully manoeuvred into place.

The site is capable of treating 320,000 tonnes of waste a year, including municipal solid waste and commercial and industrial waste. The waste is driven into the reception hall where bigger items such as furniture, rolls of carpet etc are removed. It then heads for an autoclave via a conveyor belt.

Each of the autoclaves was fabricated in America and specifically designed for the Derwenthaugh site. The autoclaves, which look like giant metal caterpillars, work via a rotating inner drum inside a fixed external drum. Each has the capacity to hold the equivalent of over 800 typical wheelie bins of waste. Steam is then fired into the autoclave at temperatures of up to 160 degrees which sterilises the contents as they're rotated for an hour. When the treated waste leaves the autoclave, it goes up to a mezzanine level in the plant where the latest recycling technology separates items such as plastics, metal and glass.

After separation the metal, plastic and glass are recycled. The organic contents, largely paper and food waste, has been given a trademarked name by Graphite - CellMatt© - and the firm is looking at ways these fibre flakes can be used in the future.

Graphite's main clients are likely to be local authorities, particularly given the European Waste Directive which has put a duty on every council to divert biodegradable waste away from landfill. In the UK, landfill tax is increasing at £8 per tonne per year and by next April all users of landfills, including local authorities, will pay landfill tax of £48 per tonne, per year.

Graphite estimates that its plant will divert 80 per cent of the waste it handles away from landfill. Not surprisingly, the company has generated great interest across the country and even from abroad in its environmentally friendly waste treatment process.

"In the North East region, we're talking in excess of 1m tonnes of waste a year," says Richard. "So these authorities now have the option to reduce the costs of disposing of their waste in an environmentally friendly way." With the largest autoclaving site in the world now firmly established in Gateshead, the company has designs on other sites and has planning permission to develop land at Wilton, Teesside.

The intention is for the site to remanufacture recovered plastics once they've been through the waste process. Graphite is even considering plants abroad for the future.

"The model which made it happen here would certainly apply across Europe," says Richard. "It would also work very well on islands such as Cyprus or Hong Kong, where there are serious limitations related to landfill and energy has to be imported, and in major cities such as London where waste has to be transported significant distances to landfill sites.

"There's also certain knowledge that we're developing all the time which puts us in good stead for future developments. We have learnt much getting this far and are continuing to increase our knowledge base as we enter the operational phase. We're also developing techniques for using the recycled materials in other ways."

The EcoPark will give work to around 60 people when it's fully up and running early in 2010 with a multi million pound turnover projected. The Derwenthaugh site has ample scope for increasing though not before any planning restrictions related to transportation are approached successful setting up of the company and the EcoPark.

The funding was secured before the recession hit and, during the downturn, the company was employing more than 100 construction workers on site. They are also due to open at a time when there are signs that the economy is recovering.

While Richard says the Gateshead operation is the biggest autoclave plant in the world, he stresses that it's the recycling of waste which is the main pioneering element.

"There are other autoclave facilities I have visited but the autoclaves were not like ours and the output materials were not as well separated and then reused," he says. "What we're doing is trying to reuse rather than dispose. From our point of view, the autoclave part is important, but so is the separation, in fact it is getting the two parts working together that's the key."

The technology has huge potential. It's a new way of dealing with waste, which has always been seen as a problem, where we change it into a resource. "And we do it in a very nice environment. I don't think I've ever worked on processing plants that have had nicer offices." He points to the bronze sculpture of the otter sitting on a boardroom side table. "And of course the otters like it here too," he adds.

North East Contact Magazine - December 09.

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