Premier response to Inside Out broadcast |
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On Friday BBC1's Inside Out programmes featured Premier Waste Management.
Dr Les Grant, Chief Executive of Premier Waste Management comments:
Premier Waste Management has had a limited amount of time to respond to the allegations made by BBC Inside Out, and has not received detailed information of these allegations. In addition we have not received any direct communication regarding these matters from the parties that have contacted the programme.
However, we do take these and any allegations very seriously and respond as follows:
During the development of its waste processing facility, Parc at Thornley, Premier has experienced periods when the monitoring system recorded that full temperature had not been reached. Premier Waste Management works closely with DEFRA, and on those occasions all affected material has been further independently tested for pathogens in accordance with the procedures laid down by DEFRA’s Animal Health Agency. Out of 326 tests only four have failed these independent tests, a clear indication that the plant is indeed sanitising the material and the monitoring system has understated achieved temperatures.
Over the 6 years that the plant has been operating, independent laboratories have carried out over 400 tests for heavy metal and pathogens in the output, many of these tests independently commissioned by DEFRA itself and by academics from North East universities. These show consistent compliance with internationally recognised soil standards for the use of this class of material, the CLEA & Dutch Soil Standards, and the absence of pathogens. Indeed extensive trials have demonstrated that the compost output has significant ecological benefits, particularly when used on poor soils such as those found on brownfield sites.
This extensive testing for a number of years shows clear and consistent compliance and should be contrasted with the very small number of samples which have been tested for the purposes of this programme.
There are procedures for sampling which ensure all tests are conducted in a controlled environment without risk of contamination. To make sure testing is accurate, the BBC’s samples should have been taken directly from the plant in a scientifically controlled manner, including subsequent refrigeration. It is likely that these samples have been inadvertently subject to contamination and degradation, based on results from the last six years of independent analysis.
By contrast Premier Waste has consistently applied International Sampling Standards and has strong basis of independent analysis from multiple laboratories to support its position. It would be misleading for the BBC to hold its samples out as in any way representative of the output of the waste processing facility.
Premier suspects that much of the information on which the programme is based may have been supplied by a sub-contractorwith whom Premier is currently engaged in a commercial and legal dispute.
Output from the Thornley plant has been used in accordance with the procedures laid down by the DEFRA’s Animal Health Agency. The use of all output can be accounted for by Premier. No output has been landfilled at its Todhills landfill site. The compost like output (CLO) has been stockpiled on site for use as a part of its restoration scheme, and the Company has been quite open about this process. Claims of landfilling of compost like output and continued tipping at the site are based on a misunderstanding. Restoration of landfills can only be carried out during Spring and Summer seasons, and material has been stockpiled at Todhills for use above the now capped and closed landfill.
Premier Waste has received one recent complaint about odour at the Todhills site which is not at all related to the CLO stockpile but rather to the management of landfill gas. Once the site is restored increased levels of landfill gas management infrastructure will be established to address this issue.
After an earlier allegation and a subsequent extensive internal investigation by Premier Waste, it was found that a very small amount of output from our waste processing facility at Thornley had been landfilled in error by the site management at its Joint Stocks landfill site. However this represented only 0.1% of the total output of the Thornley facility. The landfill tax of £1,680 has already been paid to the tax authorities. Premier Waste Management has now introduced new processes to ensure that errors such as these do not happen in the future.
Other recycled material has been used on the Joint Stocks landfill site but for restoration and daily landfill cover which is legitimate use and in accordance with a licence from the Environment Agency and on which no landfill tax is payable.
Premier’s waste processing and recycling technology is a highly successful method of treating and recycling waste and represents a real home-grown alternative to the construction of large scale waste incineration plants in the region.
February 27th 2008
The detailed allegations and our response can be read here.
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