Frequently asked questions

FAQs

Frequently asked questions

What facilities will be at the Charlton Lane Eco Park?

The Eco Park will comprise:

  • A batch oxidation system gasification facility to process 60,000 tonnes of household waste per year.
  • An anaerobic digestion facility to process 40,000 tonnes of food waste per year.
  • A recyclables bulking facility.
  • Further improvements to the existing community recycling centre, including the addition of a reuse centre.
  • A visitor and education centre which will aim to inspire and motivate children and adults to change the way they think about waste.

What will the Eco Park look like?

The Eco Park has been designed to blend in with its Green Belt surroundings. Sustainable aspects of the design include:

  • The implementation of rainwater harvesting where possible, to reduce the demand for mains water supply.
  • Cladding materials will be selected to ensure that the materials used meet suitable environmental and sustainability standards.
  • Energy efficiency will be achieved through the use of high insulation materials, glazing and use of power saving measures such as intelligent lighting systems.
  • As part of the enhancements to the area there will be extensive landscaping of the site to encourage biodiversity and create a pleasant place to visit. Additional grassland, trees and hedgerows have been added to the Eco Park proposals to further improve the landscaping around the site. A landscaped earth embankment planted with a native woodland planting mix has also been added to the plan along the eastern edge of the site.

How much of Surrey’s waste is Charlton Lane going to deal with?

Less than 30 per cent of Surrey’s waste will be processed at the Eco Park. The majority of household waste such as green waste, dry recycling or non recyclable waste from other areas will continue to be dealt with elsewhere in Surrey or outside of the county.

How will traffic movements be reduced?

The Eco Park will treat waste on site rather than bulking it and shipping it on elsewhere for treatment or disposal, as currently occurs. A transport assessment was carried out as part of the application and suggests that the Eco Park would lead to up to a 49 per cent reduction in the number of lorries travelling to and from the Charlton Lane site on weekdays.

At weekends, it is predicted that there will likely be a slight decrease in overall lorry movements on Saturdays and a slight increase in lorries on Sundays, when compared to current site operation.

What are the benefits of the Eco Park?

The Eco Park will have a number of benefits over the current site. These include:

  • The Eco Park will produce renewable energy and the site will be self-sufficient in terms of energy and hot water, with energy left over to export to the National Grid.
  • The Eco Park will produce enough energy to power thousands of homes.
  • Reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill in Surrey will lower the levels of methane released into the atmosphere. This is a greenhouse gas that is produced when waste breaks down in a landfill, which is 23 times more harmful than carbon dioxide.
  • A traffic assessment shows that the Eco Park will require fewer heavy goods vehicles to access the site. There would be up to a 49 per cent reduction in the number of lorry movements during the week, and at weekends it is predicted that there will likely be a slight decrease in overall lorry movements on a Saturday and a slight increase in lorries on a Sunday.
  • In addition to the improvements already made to the existing centre, the Eco Park proposal will add a reuse centre to the community recycling centre, enabling items like furniture and white goods to be reused rather than disposed of.
  • The scheme design includes extensive landscaping that will enhance the local environment. Surrounding grassland will be managed to promote biodiversity.

What will the operational hours of the Eco Park be?

The opening hours of the site are different to when the site is open to the public. This is to give staff time to get the site ready before customers and the public enter the site in the morning, as well as to ensure that the final daily checks are completed before the site closes for the evening.

The community recycling centre will be open to the public at the usual times:

Winter (1 October - 31 March)
Monday to Friday, 8am until 4.15pm 
Weekends, 9am until 4.15pm

Summer (1 April - 30 September)
Monday to Friday, 8am until 5.15pm 
Weekends, 9am until 4.45pm

Bank holidays
The community recycling centre will operate normal opening times on bank holidays, except for closures on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day.

The gasification and refuse bulking facilities will be open:

Monday to Friday, 7.30am until 6pm 
Saturday, 7.30am until 6pm
Sunday, 8am until 5pm

The anaerobic digestion facility will be open:

Monday to Friday, 7.30am until 6pm 
Saturday and bank holidays, 7.30am until 12 noon
Sunday, no deliveries

Does the Eco Park have planning permission?

Plans to build an Eco Park at Charlton Lane, Shepperton were considered again by the Surrey County Council Planning and Regulatory Committee on 9 March 2012. The committee agreed to permit the development, subject to conditions.

The Eco Park will help Surrey towards achieving its long-term aim to eliminate the use of landfill, which costs the county £600,000 every month in taxes alone. It will deal with 40,000 tonnes of food waste and 60,000 tonnes of household rubbish a year in an environmentally friendly way, as well as generating enough electricity to power thousands of homes.

A timeline for the construction of the Eco Park will now be developed and further details will be provided when available.

How will you control environmental impacts during construction?

A detailed Construction Environmental Management Plan is being developed to consider any measures that will be taken to control and manage environmental impacts that may occur during construction. This will include information on managing a number of factors relating to the development including noise, dust, odour and vehicle movements.

Will the community recycling centre remain open while you’re building the Eco Park?

Throughout construction the existing community recycling centre will remain open for residents to use. One of the planning conditions is that the improvements to the entrance to the site should be constructed first and residents will notice this change being made. SITA Surrey staff will work to minimise any impact on residents, will publicise major changes to service in advance and will be available on site to inform residents of minor changes to the community recycling centre layout on a day to day basis.

Will the waste transfer station have to close while you’re building the Eco Park?

The waste transfer station building will have to be removed as part of the development, which will mean that builders and traders will no longer be able to tip their waste inside it. Alternative arrangements will be publicised in advance of changes and we will do our best to ensure minimal disruption to local people during the construction of the Eco Park.

How will you keep people informed of the development?

We will continue to send out regular newsletters to local residents during the construction period and will also publicise any changes on our website. We will continue to brief locally elected representatives and the community liaison group. Additionally, we will create flyers and signage to be displayed at the Charlton Lane facility to let people know in advance of any changes to service.

What is batch oxidation system gasification?

Batch oxidation system gasification is a process where waste is heated in reduced levels of oxygen to temperatures above 650 degrees but not set on fire, to produce a gas. The gas (known as synthesis gas or syngas) is then used as fuel and burned at high temperatures to provide energy in a similar way to natural gas. A flue gas treatment system cleans the gas before it is released to atmosphere by a chimney or stack.

What is anaerobic digestion?

Anaerobic digestion has been used in the waste-water industry for decades and almost every big sewage treatment plant in the UK has an anaerobic digestion plant as part of the water treatment. Anaerobic digestion of solid and semi-liquid waste streams (e.g. food waste) is a more recent development, but has been used for around 15 years now. Germany alone has more than 4,000 anaerobic digestion plants and the number of plants in the UK is growing continuously.

SITA Surrey, through SITA UK and SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT, has considerable technical expertise and our technical experts have thoroughly assessed the suitability of the technologies proposed.

Anaerobic digestion is a process in which biodegradable material – e.g. food waste – is broken down by micro organisms in a sealed container in the absence of oxygen. This produces a gas (known as biogas) consisting of methane and CO2, which can be converted into electricity, heat and digestate.

The process also produces what is known as a ‘digestate’. This product is dewatered and the solid part is similar to compost and can be used on land to replace artificial fertilisers.

Are there similar facilities already operating in the UK?

The reference plant for the anaerobic digestion plant at Charlton Lane Eco Park is in Deerdykes in Scotland and is owned by Scottish Water.

The reference plant for the batch oxidation system gasification plant is in Dumfries, Scotland and is owned by Scotgen (Ascot Environmental).

Will the Eco Park be noisy?

Users of the recycling centre may notice a little more noise on site once the Eco Park is operating fully but residents will not. All of the noise mitigation measures have been taken to ensure that our closest neighbour is not significantly affected by noise. This means that other properties further away will not notice a change. Detailed noise assessments were undertaken for the planning and permit applications, taking existing background noise levels and adding predicted operational noise levels on top of background levels. This noise assessment has shown compliance of the proposed Eco Park not only with British Standard BS4142 noise levels, but also the much more stringent Surrey County Council noise guidelines.

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