Environment Impact Report - Essay Example

Thus, the consumption habits and lifestyle of the modern consumers are leading to a waste problem, all over the world, particularly in areas where there is heightened population. Although, authorities will normally allocate local garbage dumps and small-scale as well as large-scale waste dumping sites or landfill sites for dumping and collection of wastes, the ever growing quantity of wastes is pushing these facilities over their limits. With the existing facilities unable to accommodate the inflowing wastes, new sites are being developed.

The problem with these just dumping sites is that, because of untidy, unhygienic and even infected nature of the wastes, it could have negative impact on ecosystems as well as living conditions of the people. Thus, with shortage of dumping sites and its negative effects, authorities are looking at options, which can dispose the wastes easily and can also recycle the wastes for electricity generation. Waste management process involves the collection of the wastes, transportation of it, processing of it and finally disposing it one form or other.

This Waste management process differs from developed countries to non-developed countries, from urban areas to rural areas. With the urban areas in developed countries generating high quality of wastes, particular waster management processes has to be established there. These processes apart from disposing wastes will have the ability to produce other energy sources particularly electricity and steam power. In that direction, a development consortium has plans wishes to construct and maintain an Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) in the south east of Sheffield.

To be located in an area of derelict land at Holbrook, this ERF facility can dispose of sizable municipal wastes of the surrounding areas, and at the same time, generate sizable electricity, which can be used to run the facility, excess of which can also be given to the public electricity grid. In EPF facility, the processing of the waste and the eventual electricity generation can be carried through a multitude of processes. In that direction, the local authorities have concluded that the wastes can be processed through a mix of processes including materials recycling, composting, energy recovery and anaerobic digestion.

The proposal is to establish two-stream ERF having a capacity to process 28 tonnes of household and other municipal wastes per hour. Apart from this ERF facility and other facilities for administration and maintenance of this ERP facility, there will also be steam turbine generator that will only generate the electrical power for use in the plant and to export the remaining to the public supply grid. Among the administrative buildings, there will be an education building which will have good educational resources to teach and equip the employees, as well as the facilities to conduct research by the external visitors, engineers and other technical persons.

So, the scope of this project does not get limited to a particular area in Sheffield, but also extends to a wider area, benefiting many other individuals as well. In addition, there are plans to landscape the surrounding areas with trees and plants, so any carbon dioxide emissions from the facility can be absorbed by those trees itself. This way, the carbon imprint of the ERF facility in the Sheffield area will be