Road Water Recycling

"..for a sustainable future"

Water great idea - Recycling first for the Country

Diagram showing a cross section of a roadside gully

Background to this scheme

There are approximately 115,000 roadside gullies in Leicestershire, collecting the rainfall that runs off the road.
The gullies are emptied approximately once each year and generate about 2.7 million litres of sludgy waste.
This is enough to fill six olympic size swimming pools!
It is mainly made up of silt and water, along with minor contaminants such as oil and fuel from traffic, as well as salt from winter gritting.

Benefits

Less waste going to landfill
Long term stability and predictability of costs
Producing a useable material from waste
An attractive public amenity in the form of a lakeside and woodland walk

How does the process work?

Phase 1

Specially constructed lorry mounted vacuum tankers suck up the waste from the roadside gullies and transport it to the recycling facility at Billesdon for treatment

Plan of the Billesdon site

Diagram is representative only

Phase 2

Once there the entire load is tipped into the receiving bays to allow the dirty water to separate from the solid materials. The solid materials are then screened and reclaimed.

Phase 3

The dirty water then runs off through a series of pipes and manholes to a filter system made up of straw bales, where naturally occurring enzymes start the process of breaking down, and absorbing contaminants.

Phase 4

After filtering through the straw bales the water enters the first of a series of four reed beds. The reeds planted in these beds thrive on the elements found in this water and take up the remaining impurities.

The clean water then returns to the natural environment via the specially constructed lake into an adjacent stream.