No Waste Wasted in Milton Keynes

Aniqah Majid joined an IChemE Milton Keynes Member Group visit to to Thalia’s Waste Recovery Park to see how the UK city is turning rubbish into reusable materials and energy

“MILTON KEYNES is a city of firsts,” proclaims Chris Harbottle, waste services team leader for the city’s council and data lead for its waste facilities.

“We were the first city in the UK to offer kerbside recycling and the first to establish a materials recovery facility (MRF).”

Home to more than a quarter of a million residents, Milton Keynes has developed one of the UK’s most extensive recycling programmes. But with the population expected to grow significantly in the coming decades, the city’s annual waste output – currently around 132,000 t/y – is set to rise sharply. At Thalia’s Waste Recovery Park, the aim is to ensure as little of that waste as possible ends up in landfill.

“We are a waste treatment facility that generates energy, not an energy facility that burns waste,” explains Harbottle. “We prioritise treating residual waste that would otherwise go to landfill.”