Introduction
Shropshire Council’s environmentally-friendly integrated waste management facility at Battlefield Enterprise Park, Shrewsbury, opened in February 2005.
It was purpose built to help more waste get seperated out for recycling, composting and help to divert waste from landfill.
The £4m facility comprises:
- Household Recycling Centre (HRC) - where the public can bring waste and seperate it into different areas for recycling.
- Waste Transfer Station - to which rubbish is bulked up before being sent onto landfill.
- Materials Recycling Facility - which stores recyclable materials from kerbside collections.
- Vehicle depot - for possible future use by the waste collection fleet.
- Office building - for the administration team.
- Education room - for visits by parties of school children.
- Storage space - for bins, skips and boxes etc.
- There is also an area for taking street sweepings and litter.
The facility can handle up to 100,000 tonnes of waste per year. The main aims of the design was to be functional, safe, aesthetic and environmentally sustainable. It provides a clean, attractive and controlled indoor environment, with all waste-handling undercover and out of sight. The facility shows that waste management sites can be clean and attractive.
The facility is situated in an easily-accessible, clearly signed location on the outskirts of Shrewsbury. It was designed with a flexible layout and adaptable structure so that it may be extended for other waste services in the future.
Waste handling features
All waste handling is undertaken in the 5200mē, 14m high building. The facility design takes advantage of the natural slope of the ground, incorporating a split-level design for both public and commercial operations, and separating public and bulk waste-handling operations.
More than 20 materials can be recycled at the HRC. Visitors drive through the building to deposit their waste using ‘portholes’ for garden waste, wood, cardboard, scrap metal, soil, hardcore and rubble and non-recyclable waste. There are also smaller containers for paper, glass, cans, plastic bottles, textiles, household batteries, books, plasterboard and other recyclable materials. There is a special area for items which could be repaired and re-used like furniture. There is also separate storage for hazardous waste.
Environmental features
The new facility includes a number of environmentally-friendly measures to minimise its effect on the environment and its surroundings.
1. Energy-efficient lighting in the main building will save 60 tonnes of CO2 per year and is complemented by south-facing roof lights to maximise use of daylight.
2. Geothermal heating in the main office, incorporating over 300m of buried pipe, will save seven tonnes of CO2 per year.
3. 870 tonnes of recycled aggregate was used for the road foundations.
4. Rainwater is harvested and used for toilet flushing and washdown facilities, resulting in a further CO2 saving.
5. The facility has been designed using Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) to mitigate any impact on an adjacent watercourse using a stormwater balancing pond, interceptors, buried stormwater attenuation tanks and a constructed wetland which houses Great Crested Newts.
6. The exterior was designed to present an attractive view from the neighbouring enterprise park, Battlefield village and Battle of Shrewsbury heritage site. The landscaping was designed to enhance ecology along the Battlefield Brook watercourse and to link with surrounding developments.
7. The design incorporates tight controls on emissions to the environment, particularly odour, dust and bioparticulates. It includes automatic fast-open/close doors and provision to retrofit an air extraction and filtration system. This is particularly important as it is situated alongside a proposed Food Enterprise Park, where food processing and manufacturing companies will be located. This shows that well-designed waste facilities can sit alongside other sensitive developments.
8. The bulking-up of materials will also greatly reduce the environmental, and financial, cost of transporting the waste.
Design and build
Principal design and contract management was by Enviros complemented by an architectural team from Mason Richards, main design and build contractor Dean & Dyball and detailed design by Halcrow.
An award-winning facility
In 2005 Battlefield HRC won a prestigious national Award for Excellence in Recycling and Waste Management. It was named the winner in the category of ‘innovation in design of a waste management facility’.