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Herefordshire Council and Worcestershire County Council are close to finalising the renegotiation of the Integrated Waste Management Contract for the two Counties.
The Contract began to run into problems when their contractors, Mercia Waste Management, lost a Planning Appeal for an Energy from Waste Plant at Kidderminster.
The plant at Kidderminster was intended to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and together with recycling and composting plants across the two Counties was intended to provide better alternatives to waste disposal than landfill.
Mercia Waste Management has now brought forward a sub-contractor who will increase recycling levels and divert enough waste from Landfill sites to meet the targets set by Government to reduce the amount of biodegradable waste going to landfill to 75% of that produced in 1995 by 2010/11, to 50% of that produced in 1995 by 2013/14 and to 35% of that produced in 1995 by 2020/21.
Mercia Waste Management’s sub-contractors are proposing to use the Fibrecycle process to handle the waste.
The Fibrecycle technology proposed is based on an autoclave system that heats the waste to 150 degrees centigrade for nearly an hour, followed by mechanical separation of the constituent parts into traditional recyclate (metals, plastics etc) and a fibre consisting of the organic fraction of the waste.
The fibre can then be mixed with other materials to manufacture a variety of recycled products such as substitute wood and construction materials.
Phil Edwards, Herefordshire Council’s Cabinet Member (Environment), who is responsible for Waste Management, said: “We have a duty to minimise the amount of waste we produce – and in particular the amount that goes to landfill – and our Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy for Herefordshire and Worcestershire lays down the framework for us to achieve this.
“Herefordshire Council and Worcestershire County Council have worked very hard with our contractors to secure a process that we believe will deliver the value for money together with high levels of recycling and diversion.”
Graham Dunhill, the Council’s Director of Environment, said: “The penalties for not meeting our diversion targets in 2010 could be financially crippling to the authority.
“The government have set penalties that mean authorities will have to pay in the order of £200 a tonne for waste that is landfilled (four times the current cost of landfilling waste).
“Meeting diversion targets is now a key issue for waste disposal authorities and because of the infrastructure that needs to be put into place we have to move quickly to ensure we can reduce waste going to landfill over the next five and a half years.”
MINIMISING WASTE IN HEREFORDSHIRE
Herefordshire Council and Worcestershire County Council are close to finalising the renegotiation of the Integrated Waste Management Contract for the two Counties.
The Contract began to run into problems when their contractors, Mercia Waste Management, lost a Planning Appeal for an Energy from Waste Plant at Kidderminster.
The plant at Kidderminster was intended to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and together with recycling and composting plants across the two Counties was intended to provide better alternatives to waste disposal than landfill.
Mercia Waste Management has now brought forward a sub-contractor who will increase recycling levels and divert enough waste from Landfill sites to meet the targets set by Government to reduce the amount of biodegradable waste going to landfill to 75% of that produced in 1995 by 2010/11, to 50% of that produced in 1995 by 2013/14 and to 35% of that produced in 1995 by 2020/21.
Mercia Waste Management’s sub-contractors are proposing to use the Fibrecycle process to handle the waste.
The Fibrecycle technology proposed is based on an autoclave system that heats the waste to 150 degrees centigrade for nearly an hour, followed by mechanical separation of the constituent parts into traditional recyclate (metals, plastics etc) and a fibre consisting of the organic fraction of the waste.
The fibre can then be mixed with other materials to manufacture a variety of recycled products such as substitute wood and construction materials.
Phil Edwards, Herefordshire Council’s Cabinet Member (Environment), who is responsible for Waste Management, said: “We have a duty to minimise the amount of waste we produce – and in particular the amount that goes to landfill – and our Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy for Herefordshire and Worcestershire lays down the framework for us to achieve this.
“Herefordshire Council and Worcestershire County Council have worked very hard with our contractors to secure a process that we believe will deliver the value for money together with high levels of recycling and diversion.”
Graham Dunhill, the Council’s Director of Environment, said: “The penalties for not meeting our diversion targets in 2010 could be financially crippling to the authority.
“The government have set penalties that mean authorities will have to pay in the order of £200 a tonne for waste that is landfilled (four times the current cost of landfilling waste).
“Meeting diversion targets is now a key issue for waste disposal authorities and because of the infrastructure that needs to be put into place we have to move quickly to ensure we can reduce waste going to landfill over the next five and a half years.”