WASTE from West Devon is now being taken to the Plymouth Energy from Waste facility.

On Friday, May 15 the centre began processing waste for the first time. This represents the start of the 'hot commissioning' phase of the project, during which all systems will be tested.

The plant was jointly commissioned by the South West Devon Waste Partnership made up of Devon County Council, Plymouth City Council and Torbay Council.

Devon County Council will be taking approximately 60,000 tonnes of waste per year to the facility. The plant is expected to become fully operational from July.

Cabinet member for waste and recycling, Roger Croad said: 'This is good news that we are diverting a further 60,000 tonnes per year away from landfill following the success of the Exeter plant opening last summer but it is still important that residents continue to reduce, re-use and recycle. We have an excellent rate of recycling in Devon, around 55%, but we hope to do even better and get that to 65% by 2025 so I would urge residents to carry on the good work of separating their waste for recycling.'

The facility is designed to process approximately 250,000 tonnes of residual waste per year.  This will produce approximately 22.5 MegaWatts of electricity and 23.3 MegaWatts of heat, which will be primarily used by the adjacent Naval Dockyard, the rest being exported to the national grid.