Mechanical Biological Treatment

Juniper in at the beginning of MBT development

Recently MBT has attracted considerable interest around the world as a potential alternative to incineration for managing mixed municipal waste. What is MBT?

Juniper has been tracking the progress of these technology concepts for over twelve years. Our first project was in 1992 when we were asked by a large international waste management company to assess the relative strengths of this technology for processing waste in Germany.

Currently, we are conducting objective analysis of the issues which affect use of MBT in today's regulatory and economic environment. These issues include:

• To what extent can MBT processes boost recycling performance?
• How viable commercially and economically as a co-fuel is the residual fraction from MBT ?
• Is the disposal of the residual fraction in landfill consistent with the need to maximise resource recovery from waste?
• Can MBT/BMT technologies achieve 'Zero-waste'??

Juniper's major new report 'MBT: A Guide for Decision Makers - Processes, Policies and Markets'

Juniper has been commissioned to produce the definitive review of MBT processes and their relevance to local authority integrated waste strategies. Sita Environmental Trust (SET), with support from ASSURRE, a Belgian based environmental association, are funding the production of the Report, which is planned to be published in March 2005.

Special arrangements are also being made to organise an interactive workshop, in a UK venue, to enable key Juniper specialists to brief delegates on the findings of this report.

For more information about this report, there is a separate page and you can also request progress on the report and its publication.

Key MBT Suppliers

Over 120 companies offer mechanical biological processes or related pre-processing waste stabilisation technologies, and Juniper has an ongoing programme of site appraisals for a number of key reference facilities. We have also undertaken comparative analyses to assess the advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches these processes can take. This analytical cross-comparison informs our consultancy work on behalf of clients.

Some examples of previous Juniper projects on MBT

Case Study 1 – Multinational Company

Juniper was asked to provide an interactive briefing on MBT to senior management staff of the company and to invited guests consisting of leading scientists and policy makers for a major North American City. The purpose of the briefing was to outline the advantages and disadvantages of MBT for the locality's needs.

Case Study 2 – Public authority

Juniper was commissioned by a consortium of local authorities to carry out a technical and commercial appraisal of MBT options and technologies targeted at unsorted MSW, in the context of achieving landfill diversion and recycling targets.

Case Study 3 – Irish project developer

Juniper was asked to undertake a Market Study for Mechanical/Biological Treatment in order to assess the UK market opportunities on the background of recycling and recovery targets, competitive approaches, the existing waste collection & treatment infrastructure and the development of MSW arisings in the UK.

Case Study 4 – Private sector client

Juniper was asked to undertake a Competitive Benchmarking study for a Mechanical/Biological Treatment process with the aim of identifying and assessing potential competitors in a new market and preparing an analysis of strengths and weaknesses in order to determine a market entry strategy.

Case Study 5 – Autonomous Region of China

Juniper was part of a consortium, alongside locally based consultancts that was commissioned by the local government to propose and provide technical assessment of alternative scenarios to incineration to manage the community’s municipal waste arisings.  MBT was included in some of the scenarios proposed for which Juniper conducted assessments of the provenness, flexibility, reliability and environmental impact of MBT, relative to alternatives.

Mechanical Biological Treatment - Applicability to Household Waste Click here to read an article written by Juniper and published in the Warmer Bulletin, September 2002