Milton Keynes Waste Recovery Park

• Is a state-of-the-art facility that deals with local waste left over by households - as well as businesses, shops, and restaurants. This is in order to divert the 'black sack' waste from landfill
• Bringing together three separate waste treatment technologies, to make sure Milton Keynes Council is able to make the most of the black bag waste in the borough
• Provides an opportunity for local communities to join the Community Liaison Group helping us make a difference to the local environment
• Has been designed by Thalia Waste Management on behalf of Milton Keynes Council.

Why do we need it? By 2040, 80,000 tonnes of black sack waste are expected to be produced by households in Milton Keynes each year.

On top of this, around the same volume of waste is produced by businesses, shops, and restaurants in the Milton Keynes area each year.

Instead of landfilling this waste, we can do more to extract recyclable materials still left in the black sacks and create energy from the waste. This helps deliver financial and environmental benefits to the local area.

Milton Keynes Waste Recovery Park will cut Milton Keynes Council’s waste management bills, as well as reduce landfill to around 3%.

Why can’t we continue landfilling? Landfill is becoming expensive. The EU and UK Government has set targets to reduce landfills, with financial penalties for local authorities failing to meet landfill diversion and recycling targets.

In addition, the EU 2020 Energy Directive has set targets for the UK for energy coming from renewable sources – this must increase from 1.5% in 2006 to 15% by 2020.

Milton Keynes Council expects to prevent more than £50million of additional cost over the design life of the facility.

From an environmental perspective, landfill is also not a sustainable option for the disposal of waste. Landfill generates methane - one of the most potent greenhouse gases contributing to climate change. Methane is more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide, with landfill generating up to 40% of the UK’s methane emissions.

By diverting waste from landfill, we will prevent around 27.6 million cubic metres of landfill gas being emitted each year.

Landfill space across the UK is running out and therefore it is not a long-term solution for waste treatment.

Why is it important to reduce, reuse, and recycle? Across the country we encourage everyone to cut the amount of rubbish they generate – by reducing, reusing recycling, and recovering. For example, you can reduce the amount of food waste by using leftovers to create new meals or you can reuse your carrier bags. There are probably plenty of products that you didn’t realise can actually be recycled.

In addition to this we are able to send what can be recycled to recycling centers, as well as putting what’s left over to good use for energy! For more information on how to manage your waste, please visit (insert information leaflet/resources following rebranding)

Where does the waste come from?

Milton Keynes Waste Recovery Park handles 'untreated' waste from households and businesses, shops and restaurants. This is the type of rubbish still left over after the recycling process has happened – it’s the waste that goes into the black sacks.

How much waste will Milton Keynes Waste Recovery Park process and how much energy will it create? The site was designed on current and projected waste volumes from Milton Keynes households, businesses, shops and, restaurants. We have also considered the city's growth over the coming years.

• The Mechanical Treatment technology can manage between 120,000 and 132,000 tonnes of waste per year
• The Anaerobic Digestion technology has a capacity of 32,000 tonnes per year, while the advanced thermal treatment capacity is 93,600 tonnes per year.

We can generate around 55,000 MWh per year, which is enough energy to power the equivalent of around 11,000 homes - similar to the number of households in Wolverton and Newport Pagnell combined.

Where is Milton Keynes Waste Recovery Park? The facility is on Dickens Road, Old Wolverton.

How can I contact you: Please complete the Contact Us form or you can write to us at Milton Keynes Waste Recovery Park, 9 Dickens Road, Old Wolverton, Milton Keynes, MK12 5QF.