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Peterborough City Council and Viridor marked the start of the construction of the city’s Energy from Waste facility with a formal ‘ground breaking’ ceremony.

Senior representatives of the city council joined Viridor and construction partners Interserve and B&W Volund at the site in Fengate to see first-hand the status of the project which began earlier this summer with the demolition of existing buildings and grounds preparation.

The facility is an important piece in Peterborough City Council’s strategy to deliver sustainable waste management in the long-term. It will complement waste prevention initiatives, reuse and recycling.

Once operational, it will be one of the most efficient of its kind and it has been designed to meet the highest environmental standards both throughout construction and operations. For instance, Viridor and its construction partners recycled or reused over 95% of the materials from the demolition of existing buildings.

The plant, scheduled to be fully operational by the end of 2015, will transform the city’s residual waste into energy and virtually eliminate landfill disposal locally. Additional local benefits include the creation of 25 permanent jobs, hundreds of jobs throughout construction as well as potential new business opportunities for local suppliers.

Peterborough City Council and Cabinet Member for Culture, Recreation and Waste Management, Councillor Gavin Elsey, said: “Today marks not only the beginning of the construction phase of this new facility, but also the beginning of the end of our use of landfill in Peterborough. We very much look forward to being able to turn waste that we can’t recycle into something genuinely useful – green electricity.”

Paul Rowland, Regional Manager for Viridor, commented:

“We are delighted to be working in partnership with Peterborough City Council because it has a clear strategy and plan in place to become the UK’s environment capital and we’re committed to contribute towards that goal both throughout construction and once the facility is in operation. I am proud of the good progress we’ve made and the outstanding levels of safety and materials recovery to date.”

Peterborough Energy from Waste (EfW) facility at the council’s existing recycling site in the Fengate industrial area will have a capacity to process up to 85,000 tonnes of residual waste per annum.

The facility has been designed to achieve around 94% landfill diversion and will have a net electrical power generation capacity of 7.25MW – equivalent to the energy required to power 15% of homes in Peterborough.