SUEZ Merseyside | Education activities

Education activities

As part of our commitment to transparency and helping people understand how we make best use of their waste, SUEZ and Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority have a range of education opportunities, ranging from visits to our rail transfer loading station in Kirkby, Knowsley, and our energy-from-waste facility in Teesside, through to bespoke STEM education resources.

Our visitor centre

The equivalent of 80,000 wheelie bins of residual waste (the waste left over after recycling) is delivered from residents’ homes across Merseyside and Halton to Knowsley rail transfer loading station site every week, where it is loaded onto trains to be transported to the energy-from-waste facility in Wilton, Teesside.

A train arrives at the transfer station nine times per week to collect the waste. Each train load consists of 84 containers, each carrying around 13 tonnes of waste.

At the rail transfer loading station, SUEZ, in partnership with the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority, have created a visitor centre to explain what happens to waste from the time it leaves residents’ bins to the time it is converted into heat and power for the National Grid at Wilton.

We welcome visits by community groups of up to ten people over the age of 16. Each visit will typically consist of a short presentation and talk in our visitor centre followed by a site tour on foot.

Please note

Owing to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, public visits to the facility may be restricted. Please get in touch via the below form for more information.

The site tour may not be suitable for people with mobility issues, due to the distance from the visitor centre to the rail transfer loading station. There are also some steps around the transfer station and no lifts.
Guests not wishing to take part in the tour may wish to stay inside the visitor centre, but please be advised that tours could last up to one hour.
We are unable to provide visits for people under 16. However, Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority provides alternative educational resources for children and young people. More information can be found at www.merseysidewda.gov.uk.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) education resource

STEM education creates critical thinkers, increases science literacy and enables the next generation of innovators to help solve the environmental problems we all face. Linked to STEM subjects, SUEZ’s free resources encourage children to think of materials as a valuable resource and consider how we can reduce the amount of waste produced, and reuse or repurpose waste before recycling.

All the resources are available on the SUEZ UK website.