The Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government, John Gormley T.D., officially conducted a sod turning ceremony for PANDA Waste, Ireland's first Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) at its base near Slane, Co Meath. The plant is being developed at a cost of over €21 million with private enterprise funding and it is expected that 40 new jobs will be created.

The new facility will be in full production by the end of 2010 and will convert over 250,000 tonnes of black bin waste (previously destined for landfill) into coal substitute for cement production, high grade compost for agricultural use and 1.3MW of electricity to be fed directly to Ireland's national power grid.

It consists of an Anaerobic Digester (AD) and Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) process. The AD plant will convert both collected organic waste (brown bin material from households) as well as organics collected from black bins, into a high-grade compost suitable for spreading on land. The AD plant will extract gases from materials which are responsible for greenhouse pollution in landfills and convert them into heat and electricity which will be fed directly back into the national electricity grid.

The RDF process recovers all the high calorific materials (plastic, paper, cardboard) from black bin household waste and converts it into a fuel capable of replacing almost the equivalent weight of coal.

Panda has already secured contracts for all of the waste that the RDF plant will be able to process. Of the 250,000 tonnes of waste per annum Panda are licensed by the EPA to accept into its Meath site, over 90% will be recovered.

Panda was acquired by Eamon Waters in 1990, has a turnover in the region of €50 million and employs over 200 people in three facilities, one in Meath and two in Dublin. It has over 60,000 domestic customers (50,000 of whom are in Dublin) with over 3,000 commercial customers nationwide.

www.panda.ie