Milton Keynes Waste Recovery Park brings together three state-of-the-art technologies – mechanical treatment, anaerobic digestion and advanced thermal treatment – to treat residual waste collected from homes in Milton Keynes.

Together, the technologies increase the amount of recyclable materials which are removed from the waste, in turn cutting the amount of rubbish sent to landfill to around 3%.

The anaerobic digestion and advanced thermal treatment also generate enough energy to power around 11,000 homes - similar to the number of households in Wolverton and Newport Pagnell combined.

The mechanical treatment technology is able to handle between 120,000 and 132,000 tonnes of waste per year, and the anaerobic digestion technology has a capacity of 32,000 tonnes per year.

Any waste remaining which is not recyclable or compostable is used as a fuel for a 96,300 tonne capacity advanced thermal treatment (ATT) plant. The ATT process does not combust the residual waste but instead transforms it into a gas (synthesis gas or syngas), which in turn is combusted to generate high temperature steam which creates renewable electricity in a turbine.

The site has been designed based on current and projected waste volumes in Milton Keynes from households. We have also taken into account the projected growth of the city over the coming years.

The facility is on Dickens Road, Old Wolverton. It is within an existing industrial area, which includes other waste facilities, and the site was previously used as a distribution centre.

It is also close to Milton Keynes’ Materials Recycling Facility, which treats the recyclable items collected from homes and is based on Colts Holm Road, and near to a vehicle storage depot for refuse collection vehicles. This means Milton Keynes Council can make cost and carbon footprint savings from minimising vehicle mileage.

MKWRP has be operational since March 2018 on behalf of Milton Keynes Council.

Find out more about the site visit associated with the Energy from Waste conference, here.


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This post also appears on the EfW conference site.