A United Kingdom waste management company named Shanks announced today that it will be opening the first anaerobic digestion facility in the UK. The deal came as a result of an eight million pound venture with Energen Biogas, which is based in Dundee. The facility will be built in Cumbernauld, which is near Glasgow. The facility has many purposes and will be one of the most dynamic waste management facilities in the entire world. Many similar facilities are expected in the future as the UK tries to catch up with the rest of Europe in waste management and recycling.
The UK has come under fire in recent weeks for its failure to achieve many of the benchmarks established by the European Union. The EU recently outlined directives for all of its member countries to promote recycling schemes and to reduce the size of landfills by fifty percent over the next five years. Thus far the UK is woefully behind the rest of Europe and many industry insiders feel that there is little change they will reach the lofty goals outlined by the EU.
The new facility should be able to process more than sixty thousand tonnes of organic waste every year. However, the facility will do more than just dispose of organic waste. While disposing of the organic waste electricity will be created, at least 3MW hours of electricity. In addition, the plant will reuse much of the waste to create fertilizers which can be used on agricultural land.
It is especially important to keep organic waste out of landfills because when it starts to decompose it releases methane gas into the soil. Methane is far more deadly that carbon dioxide and contributes heavily to global warming.
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