It all started with having to be up at campus on a Thursday morning at 7am to get going. Yes you read that correctly 7am! I know for some people like our dedicated cleaners this doesn’t sound too shocking but for me it is as I normally come in at 9am!
A small group of us travelled up to Oxfordshire to see the Ardley Energy from Waste (EfW) Facility run by Viridor as we had heard so many great things about its visitor centre which invites groups of school children, university students, general public and businesses like ourselves.
After a slight delay arriving (M40 traffic!) we were greeted by a very kind security guard who gave us directions on how to reach the car park, it really sounded like a maize! However it turned out to be a left and a left again and we were there!!
Once you walk through those double glass electric doors the first thing you see is Meg. Meg is an amazing anatomically correct Megasaurus that has been created from waste that had been found at the tip just down the road and she is absolutely incredible! The more and more that you look at her you see different items such as a top hat, umbrellas, Barbie’s, baking dishes, irons and the list goes on and on.
Meg may seem a little bit out of place at an EfW but actually there is a very interesting story behind her, the site that the EfW facility is built on, dinosaur fossils were actually found! The fossils are now safely in a museum but that doesn’t mean Ardley can’t celebrate this!
We were briefed on the safety of holding onto the hand rails at all times whilst walking up the stairs and then we came to the 1st floor where the visitor centre is. I could have easily spent hours here playing with all of their specially made games, from using plastic balls to show the action of the tippers to trucks that arrive with a set weight and leave as another to get you to work out the amount of waste given. They also had sections where you could see all of the different steps that are undertaken to burn the #waste to then make it into energy. This was just a very small part of the interactive learning available with even some dinosaur information too.
We then went on our tour of the facility which I must say was so impressive. Our guide was absolutely brilliant and you could tell how passionate she is about her job, the whole experience was brilliant, with us coming away feeling like we had really learnt so much about a very effective and environmentally friendly way of disposing of our general waste. In my post ‘Energy from Waste- whys it so great?’ I explained the way that the EfW facility works and this was exactly the same. The only difference was that they are designing a way that the ash can be built into breeze blocks to then use for building! Currently the ash goes into making roads but this is another brilliant way to use the left over materials!! I would really recommend watching this video to see the amazing process.
I think I may end it here otherwise I may convince myself that I need to move to Ardley so that I can visit the site again and again! But for now here’s to #recycling as much of our waste at the University of Kent and improving the facilities that we have to do this!
What do you think of Meg? I would love to hear your comments! 🙂