Frequently asked questions

SUEZ recycling and recovery UK is one of the country’s leading providers of innovative recycling and waste management services. We employ more than 5,500 people in the UK and since 1988, have been managing waste for our local authority and business customers. SUEZ has had a presence in the North East for over 25 years and currently employs 516 people in the region across 33 sites.

 

SUEZ currently operates two existing energy-from-waste facilities and a household waste recycling centre at the Haverton Hill Industrial Estate in Billingham.

SUEZ is proposing to develop a carbon capture plant on disused land alongside its existing energy-from-waste facilities at the Haverton Hill Industrial Estate in Billingham.

 

Carbon Capture and Storage is an essential part of SUEZ’s Net Zero plans, as well as the wider vision to achieve Net Zero for the Tees Valley and the UK by 2050.

• SUEZ is proposing to develop a carbon capture plant on disused industrial land alongside its existing energy-from-waste facilities at the Haverton Hill Industrial Estate in Billingham.
• The proposed plant would benefit the environment by decarbonising SUEZ’s energy-from-waste facility in Billingham.
• This is part of the much bigger East Coast Cluster CCS project – funding for the main pipeline for Teesside is already in place and, if approved, the main pipeline will run through SUEZ’s site. Our proposed new plant will ‘plug in’ to that main pipeline and will help Teesside and the UK’s drive to Net Zero.

In order to reach Net Zero one of the challenges the UK faces is the decarbonisation of residual waste that isn’t currently being prevented, reused or recycled. SUEZ’s goal is to help households, councils and business decarbonise that waste through projects like this.

The proposed plant would be in an industrial area on disused railway sidings next to SUEZ’s existing energy-from-waste facilities on the Haverton Hill Industrial Estate in Billingham and would use tried and tested carbon capture technology.

By 2027, BP is installing a collection pipeline which runs 7km through Teesside and 145km out to sea to the ‘Endurance’ aquifer in the North Sea to store carbon. If approved, SUEZ’s proposed new facility will ‘plug in’ to that main pipeline and will help Teesside and the UK’s drive to Net Zero.

The carbon capture plant will be built on a 1 hectare site of disused land on the SUEZ site in Haverton Hill. The columns on the plant will be no taller than the stacks used on SUEZ’s neighbouring energy-from-waste facilities and around half the height of the cooling towers next door. The remaining plant will be at a low height of around 10m.

If approved, construction of our proposed carbon capture plant would begin in 2025 and the plant would become operational in 2027.

We would work very closely with our hauliers to set up timed slots to phase the arrival of lorries that would bring in raw materials.

 

Any impact on the local community is being considered and further information will be available later in the planning process.

In the future we would like to explore the possibility of a similar carbon capture plant to decarbonise the processing of household waste at our neighbouring energy-from-waste facility (i.e. lines 4 and 5).

There will be about 15 permanent new jobs connected to the facility, as well as around 50 temporary construction jobs created if the development goes ahead. It will also help secure the long-term future of the 125 people who work at the existing SUEZ facilities on the site.

Yes – information about recruitment will be available at a later date.

We’re going to do as much as we can to ensure these opportunities are available to local people – our construction partners will share the same social and environmental values as SUEZ and our Sustainable Procurement Policy will direct construction contractors to utilise local workforce where possible.

No. Neither the construction nor the operation of the plant will have any major off-site impacts. Traffic will be minimal and will avoid local residential areas like the Clarences, and the process is quiet and won’t generate any smell.

Very few additional vehicles would be associated with the carbon capture plant. The vehicles are only associated with the delivery of consumables and chemicals required for the process so would be less than five HGVs per day.

The emissions from the energy-from-waste facility would continue but with carbon dioxide removed by the carbon capture facility.

No, localised, low level lighting around the plant will be required and some lighting on the roadway but this should not impact on the wider environment.

No – all power used for the carbon capture plant will come from the existing SUEZ site at Haverton Hill in Billingham.

SUEZ will be continually engaging with the local community to make the development as positive an experience as it can be for all.

 

There will be a range of options for interested parties to get in touch with SUEZ to find out more and/or give their feedback as part of the consultation process. This will include (alongside the website):

• by phone – 0191 258 8275
• by email – [email protected]
• by post – FREEPOST Planning feedback, PO Box 6112, SUEZ House, 13-35 Grenfell Road, Maidenhead

Our Carbon Capture plant would decarbonise the process of creating energy from the non-recyclable household waste collected from across North East England that is processed at lines 1-3 of SUEZ’s energy-from-waste facility in Billingham.

 

Once operational, we estimate that this project will remove in excess of 90% of fossil and biogenic CO₂ emissions from the plant, leading to it becoming carbon negative.

 

The proposed SUEZ plant would capture 240,000 tonnes of carbon every year.

CCS is a proven technology that has been in safe operation across a wide range of industries for over 45 years. It is being used across the world with carbon capture and storage hubs and clusters in Canada, the USA, Europe, China, and the Middle East. If it wasn’t safe, then the Environment Agency wouldn’t grant a permit for it.