The water company aims to make savings of more than £500,000 per year by increasing the waste it recycles and removing the need to pay any landfill tax.
Wessex Water’s waste management adviser James Peacock said: “As a utility company, we must ensure we’re doing our best for the environment and with landfill tax now at £80 per tonne it now makes economic sense to aim for these high recycling rates.
“It takes a bit more work and thinking about upfront, but results in us saving money and reducing our impact on the environment.”
The water company has already hit the 97 per cent mark of waste being diverted from landfill sites, and all of its office waste is already diverted away from landfill.
One project completed under this zero waste regime is the recently completed underground reservoir at Summerslade Down, Wiltshire. This is part of Wessex Water’s £230 million water supply grid scheme, and was constructed using more than 40,000 tonnes of material recycled onsite.
The zero waste policy is also being enforced in Wessex Water’s day-to-day operations, including its sewage treatment processes.
Plastic, paper and sanitary material from non-flushable items that are screened out during the treatment process are being composted by Wessex Water’s renewable energy company GENeco, rather than being sent to landfill as is traditionally the case.
The company is in talks with the Environment Agency to determine the agricultural benefit of the compost-like output, and it reports that it has had interest from farmers for the product.