Reclaim disappointed over little support from UK government

Philip Hall, a 62-year-old entrepreneur, has developed a new technology that could convert waste into bio-ethanol, a green substitute to gas. His company, Reclaim Resources, had built its first waste converter plant in Bournemouth last year.

Reclaim’s unique Vantage Waste Processor blasts waste with steam as it goes inside a huge rotating cylinder. The process smashes down all raw materials into fine fibres, and removes metal and plastic for recycling. Through hydrolysis and acid treatment, organic leftovers are made into sugars and then fed into huge fermentation tanks to convert waste into bio-ethanol that could be used for aircrafts and cars, or to fuel gas turbines of a power plant.

Turning the country’s organic waste into a biofuel source is good news. But Reclaim’s current Vantage Waste Processor orders are all coming from foreign firms. Hall said that the UK government has been disappointing, with all of the company’s first orders were made by companies from China, Malaysia and Russia. He further added that the first 30 waste converter plants will be constructed overseas before England will have its own station running.

Currently, 58 per cent of the 220 million tonnes of waste produced in the UK are just buried. By 2013, the UK government is targeting to cut half of the 1995 land filling level. If the target would not be achieved, the UK will be subjected to heavy fines for violating the EU landfill directive.

To push the energy sector into action, the UK government has increased landfill taxes and provided subsidies for waste-to-energy developers. Hall’s Vantage Waste Processor is just one of the many projects being developed.