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| First Environmental Report from Hampshire WasteHampshire Waste Services, the private waste recycling
and disposal contractor to the county, has published its first environmental report,
demonstrating its commitment to work towards sustainable waste management practices to
ensure that the impact of its operations on the environment is minimised.
In setting down its record for public scrutiny, the contractor - which disposes of
all the household waste generated in the county - recognises its goals need to be achieved
within the economic, political and social context in which it operates.
"Unfortunately we are not able to do everything straight away to minimise impacts
and hence we have adopted the goal of achieving year-on-year continuous improvement"
said managing director, Keith Riley.
He points out that Hampshire Waste already meets all statutory requirements:
"We felt, however, that we wanted to do better and decided to introduce a system
which would mange, monitor and control our environmental performance."
The company began to implement an Environmental Management System (EMS) in 1997
and in 1998 was awarded certification to the environmental standard ISO 14001. It is
the biggest operator in the waste management industry in the UK - and possibly in Europe -
to have done so on the full extent of its varied operations. This includes landfill
sites, composting centres, material recovery facilities, and transport services in
addition to its administration headquarters.
The EMS has now been integrated into the Company's existing Quality and Health and
Safety systems, which provides the framework for sound control and continuous improvement
in all it does.
The Environmental report includes many statistics covering the principle activity
of the company, and shows that:
- the total waste handled or processed during 1998 was approximately 735,000
tonnes and involved 300 staff.
- in the three Material Recovery Facilities (Portsmouth, Otterbourne, Rushmoor) that the company has set up, employing 110 people, around 49,000 tonnes of collected materials were sorted. - at the three centralised composting facilities, (Paulsgrove, Little Bushywarren Copse and Southleigh) 49,400 tonnes of green garden waste has been processed, removing this amount from the disposal cycle. Aerobically processed to produce the organic soil conditioner, 'Pro-Grow', it has resulted in the production of approximately 22,000 tonnes of the material in 1998. - the first landfill gas recovery scheme at Paulsgrove was installed, and in 1998 fed 14,746 MWh to the local grid - sufficient to power 2,500 homes. Three further projects to generate electricity from landfill gas are planned for 1999. - the total amount of waste landfilled was 803,000 tonnes (including that disposed of by third parties) highlighting the need for energy recovery incinerators. In addressing its own use of energy, raw materials, water, and emissions to the environment, including waste, the company reports: - it has introduced a number of "Environmental Champions" whose role is to influence those they work with on environmental issues. This ranges from ensuring the Company's Environmental Policies are implemented to simply switching off an unnecessary lit light bulb. - the Company used 1,454,771 KWh of electricity, and consumed 5,622,500 litres of water in 1998. On both fronts it has agreed to take preventative action to reduce this in the future. - the total fuel consumed in transporting wastes in 1998 was approximately 1.3 million litres: the haulage fleet used a total of 845 tyres of which 60% were recycled and 40% disposed. 630 of the total tyres purchased were remoulds. These and many more statistics contained in the Environmental Report will be updated on an annual basis and made available to the public and other interested parties. Copies of the full report or summary document can be obtained from Jeanette Camilleri at Hampshire Waste (call 01962 764000). 13 September 1999 For further information please contact Keith Riley, Hampshire Waste Services, Tel: 01962 764000. |
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