Landfill diversion targets were introduced in the mid-1990s and has helped drive a new generation of energy from waste plants, designed to meet new strict emissions standards and provide valuable low-carbon energy.
These large sites have a variety of waste management noise sources which can create both industrial noise issues for workers along with environmental noise issues for nearby residential areas. Noise sources such as fans, blowers and burners can create significant levels of unwanted noise.
Whilst the production of energy from waste remains vitally important, increasing legislation and EU directives place evermore stringent targets on waste management and recycling. In the recycling industry, processes such as separating, grinding, compacting and crushing, all of which are utilised to recycle materials such as metals, plastics, and glass, all have the potential to cause noise issues at almost every stage of the process.
Read MoreWithin the UK, operational permits provide protection and controls for environmental emissions.
The Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016 provide detailed guidance and requirements for operators within England and Wales. Within Scotland, the legislative framework is governed by SEPA.
As a significant sector, waste management industries (either in the form of waste disposal, recycling or energy from waste) have to tackle many environmental controls in the form of air pollution, drainage, heat, substance containment, and not least, noise.
The need for movement of large volumes of materials, and air for general ventilation, drying systems, air scrubbers or furnaces usually requires very large and noisy fixed plant items. Managing the controls on such a large scale, along with maintaining a functioning operational plant can be challenging.
As with the construction of any large development, noise should always be considered at the outset to control environmental emissions, and not upset the neighbours! However, things don’t always go to plan.
When noise complaints arise, it is usual practice to use assessment methods as outlined in BS4142. In layman’s terms, this provides a baseline case for background noise levels, and assesses how much above background the site is contributing.
On these sites, it is often found that several pieces of plant and equipment can be contributing to the overall site noise levels. This being the case, noise monitoring is usually conducted close to each source to rank the sources and determine the worst offenders.
Once this information is established, noise control companies such as Wakefield Acoustics can look to implement solutions to the identified areas.
Regular noise monitoring is also usually undertaken on these sites, in order to demonstrate compliance, or otherwise, with permits and agreed noise limits. As one can well imagine, with large numbers of items of plant on these sites, wear-and-tear on equipment can quite often lead to unexpected noise emissions, hence the need for regular checks.
Working with leading industry players Wakefield Acoustics have designed a wide range of noise control mitigation solutions to the Waste Management and Recycling industry.
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