BSW Building Services, a leading Sussex based central heating contractor, is demonstrating its commitment to local environmental concerns by ensuring that more than 98% of its waste is either recycled or used to generate green electricity.
Achieved through a partnership recently entered into with Rabbit & Enviropower, a unique waste management organisation based near Lancing, Sussex, only 2% of BSW’s waste finishes up in landfill.
BSW gathers waste from the central heating and building jobs it undertakes, including numerous kitchen and bathroom replacements in and around the South East, and collects it in special refuse skips located at its HQ near Haywards Heath. Rabbit & Enviropower then uplifts the skips and transports them to its state-of-the-art sorting facility which includes a £15m biofuel waste incinerator and electricity generating plant, the first of its kind to be privately funded in the UK.
At the facility the waste is processed to remove all recyclable materials: soil and masonry go to the construction and aggregate industries, metals are extracted and sent directly to metal merchants and plastics go to specialist plastic re-processors as does plasterboard, paper and cardboard waste.
The facility then processes the remaining non-recyclable materials by shredding, compressing and burning the resulting ‘bio-mass’ in special boilers to drive turbines and produce green electricity, treating the exhaust gases through a stringent cleaning system approved and regularly monitored by the Environment Agency. Even the residue ash produced is recycled into aggregate. The plant is capable of producing 5 megawatts of electricity, which transfers directly into the National Grid; sufficient for up to 8,000 dwellings.
BSW Chairman John Belliere is delighted: “We take our responsibilities to the environment seriously and constantly strive for new ways to make our business more sustainable. The Rabbit & Enviropower partnership means we can achieve previously impossible levels of waste-related recycling and energy recovery. Not only old redundant kitchens, bathrooms and heating systems but all packaging materials, timber pallets and office waste is now processed in this way.”
This Rabbit & Enviropower partnership goes hand in hand with BSW’s environmental management accreditation and eco-friendly offices in the countryside. BSW can now confidently state it is one of the most eco-friendly firms in the country.
