Odour reports received in relation to Northacre Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT), Westbury
The Environment Agency continues to receive odour reports relating to Northacre Mechanical Biological Treatment plant (Resource Recovery Centre) on Stephenson Road – a site run by Hills Waste Solutions.
The site operators changed the media within the large biofilter on site from woodchip to a clay-based product in Spring 2025.
Whilst the process of changing over the media, and making some physical improvement to the biofilter, was undertaken with less impact than when carried out in 2021, we received an unacceptable number of odour complaints.
Odour complaints have started to increase again in March 2026.
Our officers have been undertaking additional odour-rounds in response to your reports.
Odours in residential areas have typically been very faint/faint and transient in nature and dependent on the weather conditions.
We are requiring the operator to make improvements to the odour control measures on site.
To report odours please phone our free incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60
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