Unearthing good news! - Sustain Wiltshire

Back in 2023, we started on our mission to transform landfill into one of the most climate-friendly methods of waste treatment, generating heat, energy and affordable fruit and vegetables for local communities year-round.

Since that seed of ambition was planted it has grown in its scope to incorporate a future alternative source of polymers for plastics, once the production of oil comes to an end.  

Combined with progress on the design of Solid Waste Anaerobic Treatment Cells – 

which will generate gas from solid waste to power electricity-generating engines – 

 we are putting Wiltshire at the global epicentre of technology to harness the potential of landfills, benefiting both the planet and communities. 

Transforming landfills into Super-Middens that can provide low-cost energy for eco-business parks, as well as heat, light and CO2 for year-round fruit and vegetable production, we are doing the unthinkable: turning what has been historically viewed as a problem waste management process into an environmentally sound solution for the future. 

Along the way we have hit many barriers, largely linked to planning delays, but we are making encouraging progress! 

Following a very constructive meeting with council cabinet members’ Gavin Grant, Adrian Foster and Council Leader Ian Thorn, we have been reassured that we have their support for the project and that they will assist in addressing planning issues that we have encountered.  

This is positive news indeed! 

On our side we have been ticking important boxes too. We have completed the ecology Preliminary Roost Assessment and the first of three bat emergence surveys.  

58 archaeological trenches have now been dug, revealing nothing of significance.   

Responses to the 31 questions raised by Wiltshire Council’s planning team will be submitted within the week. Our hope is that these will be dealt with in a suitably prompt manner so that progress on planning permission can move forward. 

Looking further ahead, we have also received initial legal advice that using Sustainable Anarchy in the public interest is a viable defence to use in cases where sustainable projects that comply with the law, and with regulations, are held up by bureaucracy. 

Here, the view is that work could begin on such projects as long as careful management and the adoption of all necessary steps are taken to ensure that no harm is done to nature or to the environment. This would allow environmentally or socially beneficial projects to move ahead while bureaucratic approval processes play catch up. 

In our view this is a vital development as it will allow projects that have a key part to play in protecting the planet to progress at pace.  

All positive news. 

Until next time… 

Nick Ash