Wandsworth Council is set to launch trials of a pyrolysis-based system of waste disposal, with a view to introducing it on local council estates.

Councillors have backed plans to commence trials to see if PyroPure bins can be used effectively to deal with non-recyclable waste on local council estates.

Pyrolysis uses heat inside a pressurised container in the absence of oxygen to reduce most waste into carbon dust. Under the trials, equipment is to be installed in the communal waste bin chambers of both estates – one high rise and one low rise – to ascertain whether the process would work where refuse is currently deposited into chutes and collected in large communal bins.

The equipment will use electronic sensors to check that only suitable waste is diverted into the PyroPure bins. The sensors will divert unsuitable items into separate storage space. If the system is successful, the PyroPure bins will be tested later in the year.
The council said almost 20,000t of refuse could be diverted from landfill each year if a pyrolysis-based system was introduced on local housing estates.

The field tests for PyroPure are being wholly funded by Morgan Everett, the company which manufactures the systems.