New pipeline 'to save 145k in HGV miles a year'

Waste from Calne currently travels 88 miles by road to a treatment centre in Bristol

A new pipeline is to be built to reduce "impractical and unsustainable" tanker trips.

Currently, HGVs carrying waste for treatment travel 88 miles on a round trip from the Lower Compton landfill in Calne, Wiltshire to a facility in Avonmouth on the outskirts of Bristol.

Plans have now been approved for the new underground pipeline which will remove the need for large vehicles.

Hills Waste Solutions, which run the Lower Compton landfill and Calne Quarry site, claims the pipeline will have "significant environmental benefits."

Waste from the site's landfill in Wiltshire is currently transported and treated as a waste liquid at Avonmouth.

Hills Waste Solutions says the current round trip creates an estimated 145,200 miles of HGV travel each year.

In planning documents submitted to Wiltshire Council, the company described this as "impractical and unsustainable" due to emissions.

The waste company, which has previously came under fire for "gassy" smells across Calne, worked alongside Wessex Water on the pipeline proposals which were submitted earlier this year.

A spokesperson for Hills Waste Solutions said: "This new pipeline will see contaminated liquid generated from the landfill, safely treated on-site and then discharged under a consent granted by Wessex Water via this pipeline into the public sewer system.

"From there, the effluent will be further treated at Calne Sewerage works.

"This will have significant environmental benefits, reducing HGV traffic to and from our site which will eliminate the fuel consumption and emissions from 145,000 HGV miles annually helping with the journey towards net zero."

The pipeline will connect to a main sewer on the southern edge of Calne and travel underground towards the treatment centre at Avonmouth.

Installation is expected to take several weeks.