Waste ash recycling video unveiled

A short video, which has been made to show how ash from Jersey’s non-recyclable waste is repurposed into a building material, is today (Monday 29 July) being officially unveiled.

A third of the island’s waste is recycled and the rest (non-recyclable waste) is collected by parishes and commercial operators and taken to the Energy Recovery Facility at La Collette where its incineration generates enough electricity to supply 10,000 homes in Jersey.

The by-product from this process is called incinerator bottom ash (IBA). The IBA was previously securely disposed of in the La Collette headland but, since 2017, it has been shipped to a Hampshire-based company who process the material into a usable product.

Fortis IBA Ltd's processing facility in the south of England creates a fully-sustainable secondary aggregate from the ash which is used for building roads, pavements, bridges, car parks and footpaths.

The Minister for Infrastructure, Deputy Kevin Lewis, said: "We have been working with industry leader Fortis IBA since 2017 to ensure that Jersey’s incinerator bottom ash is fully recycled. We have now jointly produced a video to help islanders see the process and understand that this is the best solution for Jersey’s IBA.

"The recycling of the ash means that even rubbish that isn’t recyclable ends up being repurposed eventually. This demonstrates Jersey’s progressive approach to recovering as much as possible from our waste and reduces the reliance on natural resources."

The video has been jointly commissioned by the Government of Jersey and Fortis IBA Ltd.

Fortis IBA Managing Director, Lee Thompson, said: "We are very pleased to be working with the Government of Jersey to recycle the island’s IBA. Jersey produces around 12,000 tonnes of IBA every year, and, once this is processed, we create a significant amount of fully sustainable secondary aggregate for construction projects in the UK. It is fantastic that the Government of Jersey has taken steps to recycle the ash produced by the island’s waste."

The video can be seen online, and more information about the Fortis IBA processing facility is available on https://fortisba.com/.