Food market power station gets go-ahead

AN energy-from-waste centre at New Smithfield Market in east Manchester has been approved by the city council.

Manchester-based Oaktech Environmental is behind the plan to generate energy for around 6,000 homes using food waste from the market.

It will use anaerobic digestion – a bio-refining system which turns food and farm waste into energy.

But the use of food waste led to an objection by Emerge Recycling which said it would do little to encourage market traders to cut waste. It is involved in a “fairshare” scheme that redistributes food waste to recipients such as homeless hostels. It wants a “pay-per-throw” system that would encourage traders to donate food rather than throw it away.

There were also concerns from some residents that the power station would give off bad smells and that trucks making food deliveries would create noise and pollution.

The power station is part of a wider £8.7m revamp of the site which is the largest wholesale market in the North West. An earlier plan to invest around £20m was abandoned due to the local authority cuts that followed the financial crisis of 2008-09.

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