North Yorkshire Council
Executive Members
25 July 2025
Allerton Waste Recovery Park Annual Performance 2024-25
Report of the Assistant Director – Environment and Transport
1.0 PURPOSE OF REPORT
1.1 To update the Corporate Director Environment and Executive Member for Managing our Environment about contractual performance of Allerton Waste Recovery Park (AWRP) for the 2024-25 Contract Year.
2.0 BACKGROUND
2.1 Allerton Waste Recovery Park (AWRP) has been operational since 1 March 2018 and consists of a Mechanical Treatment (MT) plant, an Anaerobic Digester (AD) and Energy from Waste (EfW) facility. The site also has offices and a Visitor and Education Centre where members of the public and groups can visit the facility to learn about management of waste. The facility can receive up to 320,000 tonnes of waste per annum in accordance with the Planning Permission.
2.2 The Contract requires provision of the following annual reports within 40 Business Days of the end of the previous Contract Year.
· an Annual Reconciliation Report
· an Annual Waste Data Report
· an Annual Energy Report.
· the Annual Service Report
· the Environmental Report.
2.3 This report summarises the 2024-25 performance compared against the previous year.
3.0 SUMMARY OF THE CONTRACT YEAR
3.1 2024-25 was a difficult year operationally for AWRP. Availability of the EfW was lower than the previous year and several unplanned periods of downtime meant that contingency diversion arrangements were put in place with Contract Waste being diverted to alternative treatment facilities or landfill sites. Whilst Mechanical Treatment plant availability increased when compared to the prior year, tonnage throughput was lower, and recycling performance was slightly lower.
3.2 AWRP had two planned maintenance outages during the Contract Year. The first was between 19 April – 15 May 2024 and the second started on 20 March 2025 and ran until 20 April 2025. There were some issues with the return to services following both planned outages and additional contingency diversions were required to remain in place.
3.4 In June 2024, the Government issued a further consultation around the UK Emissions Trading Scheme and inclusion of EfW facilities from 2028. The consultation considered mechanisms for distributing costs including linking with the packaging changes and Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) scheme. The document also consulted on options for monitoring and measuring fossil carbon from emissions that would require purchase of carbon allowances. NYC responded to this consultation in July 2024 and since then, there have been no further updates from Government.
4.0 TONNAGES
4.1 Total waste managed through the contract in 2024-25 was 312,253 tonnes. The tables below set out waste types and whether material was sent to AWRP or a Contingency Delivery Point.
|
2024 -25 AWRP |
|
|
Contract Waste |
221,646 |
|
Third Party |
30,278 |
|
251,924 |
|
|
|
|
|
2024-25 Contingency |
|
|
Landfill |
35,034 |
|
Treatment |
25,295 |
|
|
60,329 |
5.0 CONTRACTUAL TARGETS – AUTHORITY REQUIREMENTS
5.1 The table below shows the performance for the last two Contract Years against the Authority Requirements. Further details on performance are included in the sections below.
|
Target |
Authority Req |
2023-24 |
2024-25 |
|
Recycling/composting of Contract Waste |
5% |
1.78% |
1.75% |
|
Landfill diversion of Contract Waste |
70% |
94.86% |
87.29% |
6.0 CONTRACTUAL TARGETS – KPIs
|
KPI |
KPI description |
2023-24 Performance Failure points (PFPs) |
2024-25 Performance Failure points (PFPs) |
|
1 |
Contract Waste recycling (5% target) |
212,000 |
215,000 |
|
9a |
Max turnaround time Mechanical Treatment Facility (30 mins) |
800 |
1,200 |
|
9b |
Max turnaround time Energy from Waste facility (40 mins) |
800 |
200 |
|
|
|
213,600 |
216,400 |
7.0 RECYCLING PERFORMANCE – KPI 1
8.0 MT PERFORMANCE
8.1 The table below shows the performance of the MT for tonnage throughput and availability over the past two Contract Years.
|
2023-24 |
2024-25 |
Change |
|
|
Tonnage throughput |
157,280 |
136,655 |
-13.11% |
|
Availability (time) |
75.65% |
82.06% |
6.41% |
8.2 The MT had the highest availability performance since the contract started, however there was less tonnage throughput due to issues with the EfW availability and the need to balance bunker levels.
8.3 The first half of the year saw steady performance overall when taking account of the planned maintenance outage and some small blockages in the facility.
8.4 Performance over the last six months of the year was impacted by failure of the main shredder and also the requirement to manage the EfW bunker levels, so the MT was operating at a reduced throughput. here was a second planned maintenance outage that started in March 2025 which also impacted on MT performance as the EfW was offline from 20 March.
9.0 ENERGY FROM WASTE PERFORMANCE
9.2 The table below shows the performance of the EfW in relation to tonnage throughput and availability over the last two Contract Years.
|
2023-24 |
2024-25 |
Change |
|
|
Tonnage throughput |
270,523 |
218,076 |
-19.39% |
|
Availability (time) |
86.87% |
77.05% |
-9.82% |
9.4 The EfW was unavailable for just under 84 days over the year. 30.5 days were due to planned outages and the remaining 53 days resulted from unplanned down time.
|
2023-24 |
2024-25 |
||||
|
Days |
% |
Days |
% |
||
|
Planned downtime (DT) |
27 |
7.50% |
30.5 |
8.29% |
|
|
Unplanned DT – Other (including operational / system failures) |
21 |
5.70% |
53.3 |
14.61% |
|
|
48 |
13.2% |
83.8 |
22.90% |
||
10.0 AD PERFORMANCE
10.1 The table below shows tonnage throughput of the AD over the past two Contract Years.
|
|
2023-24 |
2024-25 |
Change |
|
Tonnage throughput |
8,025 |
5,297 |
-34% |
10.2 2024-25 was a difficult year again for the AD with the lowest tonnage throughput and electricity generation to date. The reduced throughput can be mainly attributed to availability of both the EfW and MT plant.
10.3 AD performance was also impacted by some mechanical issues (including a blocked S tube and a failure of the bursting disc in May 24) and issues with biology of waste in the digester reduced the amount of material that could be fed into the process.
11.0 LANDFILL DIVERSION PERFORMANCE
11.1 The table below shows the percentage of Contract Waste that was diverted away from landfill over the past 2 Contract Years.
|
2023-24 |
2024-25 |
Change |
|
|
Diversion from landfill % |
94.86% |
87.29% |
-7.57% |
11.2 Landfill diversion performance fell by just over 7.5% for the Contract Year which was directly linked to the availability issues with the EfW. We are working with the operator to try and get material to other waste treatment facilities rather than landfill sites where possible during any periods of diversion.
12.0 ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE
12.1 During 2024-25, Thalia reported 48 instances of non-compliance with the AWRP environmental Permit (all for the EFW). There were 26 reportable instances in 2023-24.
12.2 All but one of the breaches were categorised by the Environment Agency as having "no impact on human health, quality of life or the environment". Only one was categorised as having a "minor impact on human health, quality of life, or the environment". This event was a single, short-duration exceedance of dioxin/furan concentration above the Emission Limit Value. The Environment Agency agreed with Thalia’s assessment that there was no clear root cause and no evidence of abatement system failure. Follow-up testing showed emissions well below the permit limit. The case was referred to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), which raised no health concerns.
12.3 The Environment Agency operates a Compliance Classification Scheme where operators are rated based on compliance with their Environmental Permit. The 2024 rating for AWRP is band B.
13.0 VISITOR CENTRE
13.1 During 2024-25, the Visitor Centre welcomed over 1,300 visitors including school pupils from primary, secondary, independent, and special schools and local environmental groups. In addition to the visits, the AWRP Education officer interacted with over 1,700 people in schools across North Yorkshire (delivering assemblies and workshops), the Women’s Institute and Scout groups.
13.2 A Halloween open day was held and over 55 people toured the facility and took part in recycling and upcycling crafts with North Yorkshire Recycling Officers and North Yorkshire Rotters. A successful Climate Change event was hosted at AWRP, which welcomed headteachers and school leaders from across North Yorkshire so that they could meet other professionals and improve their school’s environmental credentials.
13.3 The Thalia website had over 2,750 visitors each month - with over 7,500 views of the Allerton Waste Recovery Park page during 2024-25. The pledge micro site recorded a carbon offset of 1,682kg since Services commenced.
14.0 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
14.1 Whilst there are no specific financial implications arising from the contents of this briefing note, the document refers to a contractual change process linked to the Environmental Permit at AWRP.
14.2 The waste team are working with the Independent Technical Advisor to establish the likely overall value of any changes required under the Contract and a further report would be brought to the Executive Member in the future detailing costs and funding provisions.
15.1 There are several considerations to take into account when managing a Qualifying Change in Law (QCiL) process. The changes to the Environmental Permit at AWRP are likely to be a High Value Change (the threshold for this change under the Contract is £2m).
15.2 The Contractor can claim for project management fees for preparing responses to a High Value Change notice. Senior Lenders due diligence costs are also required to be covered by the Authority (these fees are capped at 5% of the value of the change). Specialist external legal advisors are supporting the NYC waste team with the change process.
16.0 EQUALITIES IMPLICATIONS
16.1 There are no equalities implications arising from this briefing note.
17.0 CLIMATE CHANGE IMPLICATIONS
17.1 There are no climate change implications arising from this briefing note.
|
18.0 |
RECOMMENDATION
|
|
18.1 |
To note the contents of this briefing note
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APPENDICES: None
BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS: None
Michael Leah
Corporate Director – Environment
County Hall
Northallerton
1 July 2025
Report Author – Lisa Cooper, Commercial Manager (Waste)
Presenter of Report – Lisa Cooper, Commercial Manager (Waste)