A COMMERCIAL partnership between two waste management companies is resulting in £500,000 being spent on the upgrade of a liquid waste treatment facility on the outskirts of York.

Yorwaste, which employs 320 people and is the largest waste management company in North Yorkshire, is handing over the day-to-day operations of the liquid waste treatment facility at Harewood Whin to West Yorkshire-headquartered Acumen Waste Services.

Acumen will be responsible for the running of the site, which can currently accept up to 25,000 tonnes of liquid waste each year.

This will include waste generated by industrial and commercial businesses in sectors such as engineering, automotive, power generation, petrochemical and many more where water, sludges, silts, oils generated can be treated safely and economically at the Harewood Whin based facility.

As part of the initial 15-year agreement, Acumen has agreed to invest £500,000 in the upgrade of the liquid treatment plant. In return, Yorwaste will continue to receive a revenue from the facility.

Acumen’s group managing director Leon Kirk said: “We have a long-standing working relationship with Yorwaste, so we are delighted to have been chosen to be the strategic commercial and operational partner to run the liquid treatment facility at Harewood Whin.

“Liquid treatment is one of our specialist areas and through our knowledge, expertise and investment, our aim to maximise the use of the facility, providing a high quality, fully compliant disposal solution for businesses in the region which produce liquid waste.”

Yorwaste group operations director Geoff Derham said: “We are pleased to be working in partnership with Acumen to develop the liquid waste treatment facility.

“Liquid waste plays an important role in the services we provide to customers and by choosing a highly-respected company like Acumen to take over the day-to-day running of the facility we are confident it will go from strength to strength.

“Yorwaste will continue to manage the treatment of leachate, the liquid that comes from our landfill site at Harewood, as it important we continue managing this internally.”

Liquid waste which is brought to the facility undergoes various treatment processes which separates the various elements, which are then further recycled, re-used or secondarily treated.

Yorwaste is owned by North Yorkshire County Council and City of York Council.