A new composting plant has been approved for launch by Cheshire East Council, which will create eight new jobs for the next 15 years.
The plant will be built on council-owned land, and will process food and garden waste for 370,000 local residents.
New composting plant
Biowise is the recycling company behind this new plant, which will provide a new hub for food and garden compost for residents in Cheshire East. The 15 year deal will allow the company from Hull to open up eight new full-time jobs, not to mention providing employment to contractors during the building process. There is a lot of potential for a boost to the local economy here, as well as the obvious benefits to the environment and to local farmers who may be able to use the compost.
With the green light given by the council, Biowise will now spent £7 million on designing, building, and launching the state-of-the-art facility at a council-owned site in Leighton Grange. Situated near Crewe, the site will also include screening and blending operations in order to create a full flow for all materials brought to the centre.
This will be the first time that food from across the whole of Cheshire East can be recycled. The six-acre facility is slated to open late next summer, in what is the product of two years of negotiation with local authorities. Now that the discussions have been concluded, it appears that everyone has come to an agreement which suits both sides.
Bob Wilkes, operations and development director for Biowise, said: “The development of this advanced composting facility represents the culmination of a two-year process of careful design and negotiation with Cheshire East Council officers and their advisors. We are delighted to be a part of that process and excited about the prospect of working together in the future.”
Council on board
It sounds as though the local authorities are also pleased to be able to open a new facility which provides recycling capabilities that were not previously a local option. Councillor Don Stockton is the cabinet member for environment at Cheshire East Council. He said, “We are delighted that Biowise has come up with an efficient, sustainable and low-cost solution to recycle food waste. They have done a great job in successfully satisfying the strict planning application requirements. This new composting plant will process food and garden waste together and will help us to further improve our recycling rates, which are currently better than the majority of councils across England. We are determined to further improve these rates so that we are among the very best in the country. We look forward to working with Biowise and building a strong partnership into the future.”
As of 2019, Biowise will be granted a license to manage 75,000 tonnes of food waste annually. It’s astonishing that all of this work will only require the creation of an additional eight positions, for which the recruitment dates have not yet been announced. It’s not been made clear what the roles will entail precisely, but we can surely expect some operational positions as well as the potential for supervisory opportunities.
The facility will be a good solution to the large amounts of food that are wasted in the county each year. While some food can be donated from supermarkets, bakeries, and restaurants to local food banks, there is also a lot of food which is wasted because it is no longer fit for human consumption. With a composting site available, this can also be reused instead of simply thrown away.
