Calne landfill site in Wiltshire accepted it’s last load of waste on 15 April. The site has offered a safe and essential waste disposal service since 1992, and has taken over 5 million tonnes of residual waste from the surrounding area. As UK recycling and renewable energy company Viridor made the next step in it’s accelerated landfill wind down programme.
Calne has been at the centre of the vital service Viridor has offered to the Wiltshire region enabling Local Authorities including Bristol City and South Gloucestershire Councils to dispose of household non-recycled waste along with providing a platform for strong commercial growth in the area. Viridor is managing the operational landfills it controls down to three strategic sites, with a series of landfills entering restoration in 2016.
The site will now enter the aftercare phase and the site will be restored to a variety of land uses including woodland, grassland and even an apple orchard, creating valuable local habitats for wildlife. The 42 hectare site received up to 350,000 tonnes of waste in a year and that material filled specially engineered cells that are up to 35 metres deep in places!
Ian Morrish, Director of Landfill Energy for Viridor commented on the last delivery: “With the way we view waste in the UK changing so dramatically from a problem to a valuable resource, landfill sites are now closing across the country. Resource management in the UK is now anchored around recycling as much as possible and then recovering energy from what remains. Calne has been an integral site to our South West operations over the last two decades and now that it is shut, we are able to focus fully on the aftercare programme, although some wildlife is not waiting for us to finish, with many deer already making the site their home.”
John Lockwood, Chief Executive of Viridor Credits Environmental Company added: “Over the lifetime of the site, Viridor Credits has been able to support a number of projects in the local area from Viridor’s contribution to the Landfill Communities Fund. Over £1.38 million of Landfill Communities Fund monies has helped to transform a range of facilities from additional football pitches at the Beversbrook Sports and Community Facility to the installation of interpretation boards at the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s Blackmoor Copse and Vincent’s Wood along with a wide range of other community, heritage and biodiversity projects.”
