Brookhurst Wood A1 Displays x13.qxd - Biffa

Brookhurst Wood
Welcome
Welcome to Biffa’s
exhibition about the
changes to our proposals to
develop a new waste
management facility at our
Brookhurst Wood site, near
Warnham.
We previously received
approval for a similar facility
at Brookhurst Wood. This
approval was for a
commercial facility that
could have accepted a mix
of waste from both
businesses and households.
In September 2008, West Sussex County Council
appointed Biffa as the Preferred Bidder for its 25-
year contract for the treatment of the County’s
non-recycled household waste. We have therefore
made some alterations to our plans to tailor them
to deal mainly with West Sussex’s non-recycled
household waste, providing a bespoke solution
that meets the County’s needs.
We are holding this exhibition to provide
information about the changes to the plans and
to show how the proposed facility will turn
rubbish into a valuable resource and reduce the
amount sent to landfill.
Biffa’s proposed Mechanical Biological Treatment facility
Biffa’s proposed Mechanical Biological Treatment facility
We hope you find the information on display
helpful and interesting. Members of the team are
on hand to answer any questions you may have,
and comments forms are available for you to
record your feedback.
The exhibition is also an opportunity for you to
discuss the proposals with the project team and
to give us your feedback.

Brookhurst Wood
About Biffa
Biffa Waste Services Limited is one of the largest suppliers of waste management services in the UK,
collecting, treating, recovering and disposing of waste from homes, businesses and industry.
Biffa’s business has four operating divisions:
● Collection
– Biffa has one of the largest waste collection
networks in the UK, with 86 depots and over
1,400 vehicles, which collected over four million
tonnes of waste last year. It has around 70,000
industrial and commercial customers, and collects
waste from over one million homes.
● Landfill
– Biffa is one of the top three operators of landfill
services in the UK and at the end of the 2007-
2008 financial year operated 27 landfill sites,
which handled more than 7.6 million tonnes of
waste.
● Power Generation
– Biffa is a major provider of renewable energy in
the UK, with interests in more than 100
megawatts of installed capacity. A megawatt is
equal to 1 million watts and, by way of rough
comparison, large power stations can generate
500 megawatts and over.
● Special Waste
– Biffa provides specialised services for the
collection, treatment, recycling and disposal of
solid and liquid hazardous waste for industrial and
commercial customers.

Brookhurst Wood
About Brookhurst Wood
● Brookhurst Wood is an old brickworks and
landfill site on the northern outskirts of
Horsham, off Langhurstwood Road, Warnham.
● Brookhurst Wood has helped West Sussex meet
its waste management needs for many years.
Formerly a clay pit, used to extract natural
Sussex clay for the manufacture of bricks,
landfill operations began on the site in 1985.
● Biffa has owned and managed the site, which
already disposes of West Sussex’s non-recycled
household waste, since 1992.
● These latest proposals will allow Biffa to
continue to meet the County’s waste
management needs at Brookhurst Wood over
the coming decades in a more environmentallyfriendly
way.
Site location plan
● As an industrial site Brookhurst Wood is
well-suited to this use. It has existing landfill
capacity, as well as space to develop Biffa’s
proposed Mechanical Biological Treatment
facility, and associated infrastructure.
● Both West Sussex County Council and Horsham
District Council recognise Brookhurst Wood as
a potentially suitable location for a new waste
management facility.

Brookhurst Wood
Rubbish as a Resource
Background
● Historically most of the household waste in the UK has been landfilled, as this has long been the
cheapest and easiest way of disposing of it.
● However, European and national statutory targets now compel
local authorities to find more environmentally-friendly waste
management alternatives.
● Improvements in waste management technology over recent
decades have made it easier to extract valuable outputs from the
waste that for many years was sent straight to landfill.
West Sussex
● In 2007, West Sussex households produced around 450,000
tonnes of rubbish and this is forecast to increase to 650,000
tonnes by 2030.
● Whilst almost 40 per cent of the County’s household rubbish is
currently recycled, a large proportion is still sent to landfill.
● By 2020, the County Council will only be allowed to landfill
130,000 tonnes of household waste a year and could be heavily
fined if it exceeds this target.
● Biffa’s proposals will enable West Sussex to use non-recycled
rubbish as a resource to produce environmentally-friendly
alternatives to fossil fuels, which can be used to power homes,
businesses, industry and potentially even vehicles.
● This will help the County Council to avoid the increasing financial
penalties levied on waste sent to landfill and reduce the carbon
emissions produced in processing the County’s waste.

Brookhurst Wood
Biffa’s Application
The core principles of the proposals remain the same, although some minor changes have been made.
These relate to the layout and design of the Mechanical Biological Treatment facility.
Changes
● The two elements of the
Mechanical Biological
Treatment facility, the
mechanical sorting
plant and the anaerobic
digestion plant, can now
be developed as a single
integrated facility on the
main development area
south of the landfill.
This will be wellshielded
from views
from outside the site, by
the surrounding
embankments and landscaping.
● The processing equipment in the mechanical sorting plant has also been changed by replacing the
ball mill, which would have used large steel balls to break up the waste before it could be separated,
with a shredder. This is better-suited to processing the type of non-recycled household waste produced
in West Sussex.
● The overall capacity of the Mechanical Biological Treatment plant will be slightly more than the
approved proposals, at 327,000 tonnes per year, compared to 320,000 before.
● The capacity of the anaerobic digestion plant will increase from 40,000 to approximately 90,000
tonnes per year. This will enable it to generate twice as much renewable energy as the anaerobic
digestion plant previously proposed for Biffa’s commercial faclility.
Other elements of the plans
Biffa’s proposed Mechanical Biological Treatment facility
● Biffa’s proposals also include office space and a visitor and education centre.
● This will host visits from schools and community groups to promote recycling and ways to minimise
the amount of rubbish that the County produces, providing a first-hand experience of waste
management that cannot be recreated in a classroom setting off site.

Brookhurst Wood
Site Plan
Brookhurst
Wood Landfill
Site
Closed Landfill
Site
MBT Location
Site
Access
Process Design
Waste delivered to
reception hall
Shredding and
mechanical
separation
Metals
Sent for
Recycling
Organics
Residues
Refuse Derived Fuel
Anaerobic
Digestion
Landfill
RDF to Market
Biogas for
electricity or fuel
for vehicles
Biomass fuel
for
new homes
Energy
for Homes
and Businesses

Brookhurst Wood
Mechanical Biological Treatment Explained
Background
● Mechanical Biological Treatment is not a
single technology.
● It is a combination of sorting and treatment
technologies that use waste as a resource.
● It is a proven and reliable way of handling
waste.
● Biffa operates similar facilities to that
proposed for Brookhurst Wood in Leicester
and on the Isle of Wight, and the specific
technology proposed is used on a number of
sites in Germany.
How it works
● Black bag household waste leftover after householders have separated out recyclable materials is delivered to
the facility where it is shredded.
● The shredded waste passes over a series of conveyors and other sorting equipment, which separates out
biodegradable organic waste that easily rots (mainly food waste) from other materials.
● This sorting process also separates out metals, which are sent for recycling.
● The remaining shredded material (mostly paper and plastic) is used to produce Refuse Derived Fuel, an
environmentally-friendly alternative to fossil fuels, which Biffa will initially market to energy-intensive industries.
● The biodegradable organic waste that has been separated is broken down by bacteria in enclosed containers
through a process known as anaerobic digestion. This produces two main products:
Biogas - a methane-rich renewable form of natural gas, which could potentially be used as a fuel for vehicles,
or to produce enough energy to power the facility itself and the neighbouring brickworks. Some energy
will also be exported to the grid. In total, the process will produce enough energy to power
approximately 4,000 homes.
● Digestate - a fine organic material with the potential to be dried and used as a biomass fuel to provide hot water
and heating for homes in the County.
Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF)
● Biffa will initially market the RDF to industry.
● If a market cannot be found West Sussex County Council may require Biffa to construct an energy recovery plant,
probably at Brookhurst Wood.
● This would use advanced thermal recovery, such as gasification, rather than traditional mass burn incineration.
● This does not form part of the planning application.

Brookhurst Wood
Key benefits
Biffa’s proposals have the potential to provide a
long-term, greener solution to West Sussex’s waste
management needs. The Brookhurst Wood facility
will:
● Reduce the amount of West Sussex’s
non-recycled waste sent to landfill by up to
80 per cent.
● Help to achieve West Sussex’s recycling target
of 50 per cent.
● Produce environmentally-friendly alternatives
to fossil fuels for industry and homes.
● Produce 3.5 megawatts of electricity, enough
to power 4,000 homes.
● Reduce carbon emissions, helping the
environment.
● Create up to 80 new jobs in range of positions,
from managerial and engineering to officebased
and manual jobs.
● Provide new educational facilities.

Brookhurst Wood
Protecting Local Amenity
The facility has been designed to protect local
amenity and be a good neighbour to nearby homes
and businesses:
● The proposed Mechanical Biological Treatment
facility will accept only non-hazardous
household and commercial waste and will fully
comply with environmental and health and
safety standards.
● Waste will be processed in an enclosed
environment with air extraction systems, filters
and sound proofing to contain odours and noise.
● No sorting, recycling or treatment of waste will
take place in the open air.
● As the proposals progress, Biffa will appoint a
Community Liaison Officer and hold regular
Brookhurst Wood Contract Liaison Group
meetings to ensure the local community is kept informed of operations on the site and has the
opportunity to ask questions and raise any concerns directly with Biffa.
● Biffa will also set up a dedicated website that will provide the community with regularly updated
information about the facility.
In addition:
● The facility will need to secure a permit to operate from the Environment Agency, which the Agency
will only grant if it is satisfied that the facility will operate safely.
● The Environment Agency will continue to closely monitor the facility’s operations throughout its life
to ensure that it operates within the conditions of its permit.
Operating Hours
The mechanical sorting plant will operate from:
● 7am to 7pm Monday to Saturday and
● 7am to midday on bank holiday Mondays.
The anaerobic digestion process will operate continuously, using the County’s waste to generate valuable fuel.

Brookhurst Wood
Traffic
West Sussex’s non-recycled household waste will
continue to be delivered to Brookhurst Wood,
where it will be processed by the MBT facility
rather than sent straight to landfill.
The level of heavy vehicle traffic is the same as
Biffa proposed for its previous plans for a
commercial facility – up to 196 vehicles visiting
the site per day at the peak of the facility’s
operations.
Studies for the previous application showed that
local roads could accommodate this level of traffic.
Biffa is carrying out detailed traffic assessments,
including work with West Sussex County Council
and Horsham District Council, to ensure the
proposals take fully into account the situation on
the local roads, including potential future
developments on the neighbouring brickworks
complex and surrounding area.
The 196 heavy vehicles include those delivering
waste to the site and vehicles collecting the Refuse
Derived Fuel, recyclable metals and biomass fuel.
Heavy vehicle traffic will be lower in the early
years of the facility’s operations. Biffa’s current
traffic assessments show that:
● From 2010 until the completion of the MBT
facility, up to 99 heavy vehicles per day will
visit the site.
● From completion of the MBT facility until the
end of 2015 up to 125 heavy vehicles per day
will visit the site.
● Heavy vehicle numbers will then rise to up to
155 heavy vehicles per day visiting the site,
until the completion of the landfill at the site.
● Once the landfill at the site is full, heavy vehicle
traffic will rise to up to 196 heavy vehicles per
day visiting the site. This rise accounts for the
vehicles needed to remove residual waste to
another landfill.
Biffa is keen to minimise the number of vehicles
travelling to and from the site and is working with
West Sussex County Council and Viridor Waste
Management, who operate the Reclaim contract,
to use the same vehicles to both deliver waste to
the facility and take away materials for treatment
elsewhere.

Brookhurst Wood
Delivery and Collection Times
The proposed hours for deliveries of waste and collections of materials produced by the facility are:
● 7am to 6pm on weekdays, (4.30pm to 6pm materials out only)
● 7am to 6pm on Saturdays, (12pm to 6pm materials out only)
● 7am to 10am on public holidays and
● 7am to 6pm on the Saturday following a public holiday (3pm to 6pm materials out only).
These times exceed the restrictions imposed on Biffa’s previous application for a commercial facility by
West Sussex County Council’s Planning Committee in spring 2008.
West Sussex’s waste management services ensure that residents’ waste is collected on a regular basis
and that the Household Waste Recycling Sites operate throughout weekends and bank holidays. These
opening hours will ensure this comprehensive service continues into the future.
The work undertaken for Biffa’s previous application showed that local roads could accommodate
deliveries and collections at these times.

Brookhurst Wood
Community Engagement
Our Commitment
Biffa is committed to informing the local
community about its plans and giving people the
opportunity to discuss the plans with the team.
We are undertaking a programme of public
engagement before we submit a planning
application in the spring.
This includes this exhibition, our website at
www.biffa.co.uk/west_sussex, newsletters to the
local community, and meetings with local groups.
We will report back to the community on the
feedback we receive during this process and how
we have responded to it. We will also prepare a
formal Statement of Community Involvement
describing the activities undertaken and
summarising the feedback received, and how we
have responded to this.
Biffa in the Community
Biffa also contributes to the local communities
around our landfill sites through the Biffaward
scheme, administered by the Royal Society of
Wildlife Trusts.
This is one of the most respected Landfill
Communities Fund schemes in the country and it
has awarded approximately £100 million to
community and environmental projects since
1997.
Biffaward funding has helped local community
groups and recipients have included Horsham
Rugby, Sports and Social Club and Horsham’s 1st
Broadbridge Heath Scout Group.
Our commitment to community involvement will
continue beyond the submission of our planning
application and we will continue to engage with
the community through updates to the website,
newsletters, and meetings with the Contract
Liaison Group.
As the proposals progress, we will appoint a
dedicated Community Liaison Officer, who will be
based at Brookhurst Wood, to provide a link
between the facility and the local community.

Brookhurst Wood
Next steps
Your Feedback
We are specifically seeking feedback on those issues where the local community’s views can influence
the final plans.
These include the design of the Mechanical Biological Treatment facility and also how the visitor and
education centre can make the very best possible contribution to educating people about the waste
management activities on the site, and about waste management and waste reduction more generally.
However, we will consider and respond to comments on all aspects of the plans.
Please take the time to fill in one of the Comments Forms provided.
Your feedback will be reviewed and Biffa’s responses to it will be included in a Statement of
Community Involvement to be submitted with our planning application.
Possible Timescale
Planning
Application
Submitted
Possible
Approval
Date
Possible
Development
Start
Possible
Development
Completion
Spring
2009
Summer
2009
Autumn
2009
Winter
2009
Spring
2010
Summer
2010
Autumn
2010
Winter
2010
Spring
2011
Summer
2011
Biffa intends to submit a planning application for the new waste management facility at Brookhurst
Wood in spring 2009.
If the application is approved in autumn 2009 work will be able to begin in winter 2009.
Completion of the work is then likely to take place in summer 2011.
If you would like to get in contact in future:
please e-mail brookhurst.wood@biffa.co.uk,
call our community information line on 0800 587 9949,
or visit www.biffa.co.uk/west_sussex,
which we will keep updated about the progress of our proposals.