This project aims to achieve local success in two fields.

The first is in finding innovative ways of tackling the commercial waste of the county not covered by local authorities or national recycling targets. Here there is immense opportunity to deliver new routes to recycling, new products and new market places, all of which stimulate local employment whilst limiting impact on the environment.

The second is through innovative waste management. There is scope for technical development and for communities to become involved in waste minimisation - something not dealt with by other schemes.

The result, it is hoped, is a two pronged programme of work, ideas, products, approaches and markets that complement the work being undertaken elsewhere.

Objectives:

• To deliver waste minimisation throughout communities;
• To explore new technologies, products and markets that assist recycling in the community;
• To develop new ways of identifying commercial waste market forces and deliver local solutions for local waste;
• Develop the potential for the creation of local employment.

There are several projects being carried out within this sub-project. They include:

Waste Audit of the Dyfi Valley - ecodyfi
Ecodyfi are working with domestic and business sectors in the Dyfi Valley to undertake a complete waste audit. They will devise an audit system that meets the needs of Powys-based communities.

The project will enable ecodyfi to understand the market infrastructure for waste in the Dyfi Valley by:

• Mapping flows of waste materials, assessing qualities and quantities of waste produced, where waste is transferred to and at what price;

• Identifying materials that may be processed and/or marketed locally;

• Identifying new opportunities for collection and sale of recyclate;

• Identifying barriers to increased usage of present waste management/recycling systems.

Powys Micro AD - Ethical Innovatory Solutions
EIS seeks to build a micro-Anaerobic Digestion unit in order to prove the principle that this technology can be adapted and made smaller to make it viable for cooler climate countries and rural areas such as Powys.

If Anaerobic Digestion can be made smaller and, as a result, provide an acceptable local solution to local waste, then bio-waste becomes a commodity with a value rather than a drain and a liability.

Kerbside Recycling - Ethical Innovatory Solutions
EIS are undertaking an independent research project to look in to examples of innovation and good practice in rural kerbside and other collection of recyclables across the UK.

The aim is to produce a practical document that can be used by Powys recycling organisations to inform planning and development of existing and prospective services and to reduce unnecessary duplication of research and/or expenditure.

They are researching:

• Collection vehicles;
• Handling and sorting of collected waste;
• Health and safety implications;
• Legal restrictions;
• Final processing options.

Small Scale Pellet Production - Coed Cymru
The project involves a technical and market test of small-scale pellet technology on a scale suitable for commercial uptake.

Waste sawdust from a number of timber manufacturers will be made in to pellets on the pellet mill at Coed Cymru. Market research will be conducted in the local area. It has been shown that there is a shortage in the supply of locally produced pellets and an increase in the uptake of pellet stove installations. This project aims to make the link between the pellet manufacturing technology available at Coed Cymru and establishing a reliable local supply of wood pellets in Powys.