£7m scheme will improve Cheshire East household recycling rates

A recycling company has been given the green light by planning chiefs to build a food composting plant in Crewe which will create eight full time jobs.

The Hull-based recycling company, Biowise, has secured a 15-year deal with Cheshire East Council to provide a composting plant to process food and garden waste from Cheshire East’s 370,000 residents.

The composting plant will make it possible for food across the whole of Cheshire East to be recycled for the first time from late summer 2019.

Latest figures have revealed Cheshire East Council is recycling more than 55% of waste compared with less than 17% almost a decade ago.

Cllr Don Stockton, Cheshire East Council’s cabinet member for environment, said: “We are delighted that Biowise has come up with an efficient, sustainable and low-cost solution to recycle food waste.

“They have done a great job in successfully satisfying the strict planning application requirements.

“This new composting plant will process food and garden waste together and will help us to further improve our recycling rates, which are currently better than the majority of councils across England.

“We are determined to further improve these rates so that we are among the very best in the country.

“We look forward to working with Biowise and building a strong partnership into the future.”

Cheshire East is keeping its three bin system with the waste being collected fortnightly within the garden waste bin, so there will be no need for an extra container.

Once completed next year, the food and garden waste will be processed at the new six-acre composting plant in Crewe.

Each year, from 2019, Biowise will have a licence to manage 75,000 tonnes of food waste across Cheshire East.

The company will design, build, finance and operate a £7m state-of-the-art composting facility at the council-owned site in Leighton Grange, near Crewe.

Bob Wilkes, operations and development director for Biowise, said: “The development of this advanced composting facility represents the culmination of a two-year process of careful design and negotiation with Cheshire East Council officers and their advisors.

“Through this forward-thinking and collaborative process, Cheshire East Council is providing a long-term, environmentally-friendly solution to their residents, utilising state-of the-art technology to produce a fantastic quality assured compost product from mixed garden and food waste.

“We are delighted to be a part of that process and excited about the prospect of working together in the future.”