• Environment
• Quality
• Health & Safety
• Community
• Careers
• Media section
• Blogs

Below are the detailed responses given to the BBC Inside Out programme.

1. The disposal of Premier’s Compost Like Output at the Todhills landfill site in December 2007 and January 2008.

The CLO placed at the Todhills site has not been disposed of at the site but is being stored pending its use in restoration of the landfill. Read more about the Todhill site plan here.

The concern about the use of CLO at this site highlights a misunderstanding of Premier Waste’s activities on the site. Landfill operations ceased at the end of September last year, whilst capping and restoration works will continue through to November 08 to complete the site in accordance with planning requirements. To be clear, capping is the sealing of the waste void beneath with an impermeable barrier whilst restoration is the application of soils and similar materials above that capping layer to produce a profile in line with planning consents.

Weather conditions during the winter mean that restoration works on landfills cannot be carried out. However, during this time we have been continuing deliveries of CLO to the site to stockpile and ensure that there is sufficient material available to complete all site restoration once engineering works restart in Spring. This may have been mistaken by some residents as continued tipping.
All the CLO and soil has been stockpiled on top of areas of the landfill site that have already been capped. Because the CLO is friable and can give rise to dust nuisance in high winds the CLO stockpile has also been covered with soil.

We work closely with the Environment Agency and the agency’s Inspectors make frequent inspections of our operations at this site, including the CLO stockpiles. The Environment Agency’s subsequent reports show no concerns relating to restoration operations or these stockpiles.

In Spring 2008 the remainder of the site will be capped and the stored soils and CLO will be mixed and spread to create a subsoil profile upon which a topsoil layer will then be placed ready for seeding and planting. This work will be done in accordance with the regulatory permissions and certified by an independent Quality Assurance programme.


2. The suggestion that CLO has been disposed without payment of landfill tax at Joint Stocks.

Premier carried out an extensive internal investigation last year regarding allegations of the un-authorised disposal of CLO at the Joint Stocks landfill site. The investigation identified that 70 tonnes of CLO had been buried in the landfill in breach of the company’s procedures. This represents only 0.1% of the total output of the Thornley waste processing facility.

The results of the investigation were given to HM Revenue and Customs and the outstanding landfill tax of £1,680 has been paid. That amount however should be viewed in the context of £8 million that the company pays in landfill tax every year.

Another 370 tonnes of CLO was used as daily cover on the landfill site in accordance with a licence from the Environment Agency and on which no landfill tax is payable.  This has been confirmed by HM Revenue and Customs.

The company has implemented changes to its procedures to reduce the risk of similar incidents occurring in the future. The incident did not present any risk to the environment and the landfill site is approved to dispose of this type of material by the Environment Agency.

The Company has detailed records of all CLO produced by the plant and can demonstrate where such material has been used in restoration. The analysis shows a match between the two tonnages of better than 0.8% or around 250 tonnes in 31,000. This gives us additional confidence that no further CLO has been improperly landfilled.


3. Evidence the Inside Out have obtained that the aerobic digesters at Thornley have been operating below temperatures specified by the Animal By-Products regulations 2003.

The plant is licensed under Animal By Products Regulations 2005 which specify that the waste should reach a temperature of 70^oC for 1 hour. The Plant HACCP Plan which is approved by the Regulator, DEFRA’s Animal Health Agency, describes what must be done with the output of the plant if the temperature target is not reached: the material must either be put to landfill or used in landfill restoration.

The problem of accurately measuring the temperature of a waste mass of between 100 and 200 tonnes which is being slowly agitated within the digester tower is actually quite challenging. The manufacturers of the plant have designed a temperature monitoring system which measures temperatures at various points around the composting compartment.

It is true that the temperature measuring system has experienced some problems and has been the subject of programmes of redesign and rework. There have been periods where the temperature monitoring results have not necessarily reflected the actual temperatures achieved in the plant.  All affected material is further independently tested for pathogens in accordance with the procedures laid down by the DEFRA’s Animal Health Agency. 

The fact that only 4 out of 316 tests have ever failed points towards the conclusion that the plant is indeed sanitising the material and the monitoring system has been understating achieved temperatures. All our material produced by the plant is used in accordance with the operational procedures approved by DEFRA’s Animal Health Agency.

From September 2007 we have implemented a further precautionary regime in which we now sample every batch emerging from the plant irrespective of the temperatures indicated by the monitoring system. These samples are then sent to an independent approved laboratory to be tested for the pathogen marker, e-coli, and also for salmonella. DEFRA’s Animal Health Agency also takes samples from random batches and tests them independently.

Our testing regime is above and beyond that required by regulations and industry standards and gives a high degree of confidence in the sanitization performance of the plant. In any event we are clearly using all materials in a way that is consistent with our approvals. Furthermore, the use of the material in landfill restoration has also been conducted in accordance with appropriate waste management licences or registered exemptions issued by the Environment Agency.


4. Failure to quarantine un-sanitized batches of CLO from the digesters at Thornley.

We actually quarantine all batches emerging from the plant until we receive confirmation that the samples taken from them have been confirmed by an independent laboratory to have passed tests for e-coli and salmonella. These results are normally returned to us within a couple of days.

We also wish to emphasise that we stockpile batches of material over significant periods, sometimes several months, before they are used in restoration applications.


5. The findings of Inside Out's own independent analysis of the output of the digesters which indicates unacceptably high levels of some pathogens and contaminates including glass, plastics and heavy metals.

Premier Waste Management undertakes extensive sampling and testing of the outputs from the digesters, under stringent scientific conditions and procedures.

Every batch of CLO is tested by an independent laboratory for the presence of marker pathogens. Random samples are also regularly independently tested by our regulator, DEFRA Animal Health. We also have a five year long independent testing program looking at the chemical and nutrient characteristics of the materials.

Academics from both major North East Universities and internationally renowned consultancies such as ADAS have participated in a variety of trials and tests of the material. These have demonstrated that the CLO is pathogen free and has significant beneficial ecological benefits, particularly when used on poor soils such as those found on Brownfield sites.

An independent expert, Professor Brian Chambers of ADAS has provided the following comment,  “ADAS has been working with Premier Waste Management evaluating the characteristics of the CLO. We can confirm that our testing has shown it to be pathogen free and that the heavy metal content levels are appropriate for materials used in brown-field site restoration. From our wide experience of the application of alternative materials on land we can confirm that the heavy metal content of Premier’s CLO is similar to the wide range of other organic materials currently used in agricultural applications.”

Premier would also like to make a comment about sampling regimes. A single sample can be useful in determining the presence of marker pathogens but is actually pretty meaningless in the context of establishing heavy metal concentrations where significant numbers of samples provide a much better statistical indication of the characteristics of any class of material.

E-coli is the classic marker for pathogens but it is a pervasive organism. It is certainly present in large quantities in the input waste that the plant processes – the outputs are sampled as they emerge from the plant and if testing reveals e-coli counts below minimum levels then it is a good indicator of the plant having sanitized the waste and dealt with a range of pathogens. The danger in taking a sample from elsewhere is that they may well have been contaminated by e-coli after they have left the plant – birds and rodents as well as humans all are potential carriers and contamination is very common. Samples need to be taken in highly controlled conditions as the materials exit the plant and before they are exposed to the risk of external contamination.

Routine independent laboratory analysis is carried out on the CLO output from the plant to confirm that the heavy metal contaminants fall within the relevant standards, to date 94 separate suites of analysis have been carried out.

It’s difficult to comment on the samples tested by the BBC, whose origin, handling and exposure to external contamination are to us uncertain; to be useful samples need to be taken and managed in a highly controlled manner.

The PAS 100 standards that the BBC quotes are not relevant to CLO, they only apply to source segregated green waste materials. The standards most appropriate to CLO are the Environment Agency’s CLEA standards, the CLO comfortably meets these for Commercial and Industrial landscaping purposes. The two metals that the CLEA standards do not have a limit for, namely copper and zinc, the CLO comfortably meets the internationally recognised Dutch Soil Standards.
Click on this link to open up a window showing a summary of the data obtained from this metals testing regime along with the relevant standards.


6. The management of local residents concerns

Premier takes the concerns of local residents very seriously and investigates every complaint it receives. To ensure that operations impact as little as possible on its neighbours the company has established local community liaison committees at its major sites. There is a committee established at Todhills landfill which meets to discuss activities at the site and any other issues that residents may have. The last meeting was held on 3 October 2007 when concerns were raised by Newfield Residents Association regarding landfill gas odours. The Environment Agency, who also attends the meetings, confirmed that odours had occurred as some gas wells on the site had been damaged. Premier advised the meeting that these damaged wells would be inspected and repaired. 

Premier has not been directly approached by any residents complaining of continued tipping at the site although it understands that enquiries have been made to Durham County Council. The company has advised the Council that the deposit and storage of soils and CLO to be used in landfill restoration has occurred after waste disposal operations ceased in September 2007. This is in line with the planning consent for the site which requires restoration materials to be imported to the site and used by 30 November 2008.