St Mary's Calne
On Friday 1st December, five members of Eco-Group visited Grist Environmental for a tour around the site. Grist Environmental is a leading waste management and recycling specialist in the South West, used by St Mary's Calne to collect most of the school's waste.
When we arrived, we were kitted out with hi-vis jackets and hard hats so we were safe and ready for our tour. We first saw how the waste is weighed as it enters and leaves the site to ensure costs can be accurately calculated, before moving on to see where the waste goes when it first arrives.
Using various diggers, the waste is initially roughly sorted into piles of scrap metal, wood, inert material (bricks, soil etc), and then any remaining mixed waste. The mixed waste is then loaded onto a conveyer belt where it is further separated based on its size using a grate to allow smaller materials such as soil to be collected separately. The remaining waste continues along the conveyer belt where workers on the picket line hand select specific materials whilst magnets collect any ferrous metals. This ensures the maximum amount of material is recycled and recovered appropriately.
Recyclable materials are then bulked up and sent to recycling end points who are specialists in recycling each specific material. The waste is compacted prior to transportation to ensure the maximum volume of waste is being transported in each vehicle, further reducing the environmental impact of the company.
Any remaining waste is used for ‘refuse-derived fuel’ routes. This means the waste is burnt to produce energy for heat and power, diverting it from landfill. This is considered a renewable energy source and has been found to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and conserve landfill space.
It was great to hear how keen Grist Environmental are to reduce their environmental impact in whatever way they can, adjusting their policies where necessary and keeping up to date with any new government guidelines.
We all found the trip really interesting and were very encouraged to see our school waste being appropriately processed instead of being directed to landfill.
Thea (UVI), MInister for the Environment