Viridor operates Energy from Waste facilities, like the one at Beddington, which process non-recycled waste, turning it into energy.

The Environment Agency regulates these and requires a Continuous Emissions Monitoring System (CEMS) as part of a facility’s environmental permit.

The Environment Agency’s preference is that all Energy from Waste facilities employ independent, specialist accredited third-party contractors to fulfill certain elements of this continuous emissions monitoring programme.

Viridor engaged an accredited third-party specialist technical contractor to manage emissions monitoring at Beddington.

In March 2024, Viridor detected an issue with the system which controls how much nitrous oxide is emitted. Viridor discovered this accredited contractor responsible for emissions monitoring had put incorrect functions into the system, causing it to report inaccurate data.

The outcome of the accredited specialist technical contractor’s actions was that the Beddington Energy Recovery Facility under-reported emissions of nitrous oxide for the period from September 2022 to March 2024.

Viridor takes its environmental responsibility seriously and strives for a zero-breach policy across the different emissions categories that fall within its environmental permit.

As soon as Viridor identified the issue of historic under reported emissions, it self-reported to the Environment Agency, formally notified them of the breaches and conducted its own independent investigation into the incident, hiring a specialist environmental consultant.

Viridor also wrote to the accredited specialist technical contractor to request its own independent investigation into the matter. This contractor subsequently admitted liability and concluded its under-reporting was a direct result of ‘human error’.

Following Viridor’s notification, the Environment Agency independently looked into the incident to supplement Viridor’s independent investigation.

Viridor has cooperated with the regulator at every stage of the process. This took the form of, what is referred to by the regulator as, a “Compliance Assessment Report” which assesses Energy from Waste operators’ compliance with their environmental permits.

The Environment Agency has acknowledged the breaches at Beddington resulted from human error on the part of the third-party contractor, corroborating the independent environmental consultant’s investigation.

As part of this analysis, the Environment Agency and the UK Health Security Agency (“UKHSA”) also concluded the breaches did “not result in exceedances of Air Quality Standards.”

Viridor has reviewed the Environment Agency’s analysis, accepts its findings and will incorporate the recommendations. Viridor has acted decisively, implementing new training and oversight measures to do its best to ensure strengthened oversight of emissions monitoring from third-party contractors on the Environment Agency’s list of UKAS accredited contractors.

Viridor also acknowledges the newly strengthened guidance the Environment Agency introduced in July setting out updated expectations for the industry operating Energy from Waste facilities when it wrote to the Environmental Services Association. The regulator updated its expectations for operators’ oversight of accredited contractors managing emissions monitoring going forward. Viridor has explained to the Environment Agency that it hopes this change will benefit the sector overall and is committed to sharing its experience with the sector if that is a helpful lessons learned experience.

Viridor has taken this entire process extremely seriously from the outset and done as much as it possibly could to resolve the issues that have regrettably arisen as a result of a third-party accredited contractor’s error.

ENDS

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