The Long Term Waste Treatment Project
What is it?
- Leicestershire County Council is aiming to provide new waste treatment facilities that will deal with the majority of the residual domestic rubbish that currently is sent to landfill (i.e. the rubbish remaining after recycling and composting).
- It is anticipated that the new facilities will operate for a 25 year period and be designed to deal with approximately 180,000 tonnes of Leicestershire's rubbish per year by 2040.
- The County Council has not made a decision regarding technology types or sites to be used to treat the waste. The County Council is open to all options and private waste companies will be asked topropose solutions including the type of facility and technology as well as the site.
Why are we doing it?
- The European Union has set the United Kingdom challenging targets to reduce the amount of rubbish it sends to landfill. These targets are displayed in the following table:
|
Target Year
|
|
2010
|
|
2013
|
|
2020
|
- The UK Government has also introduced measures to make Councils develop alternative methods of waste disposal (i.e. other than landfill) and divert increasing amounts of waste away from landfill. These measures include:
- increasing the tax payable on landfilled rubbish year on year
- setting a maximum annual limit of waste that can be sent to landfill for each local authority (if an authority exceeds this limit they could be subject to penalties of up to £150 per tonne)
- requiring all local authorities to achieve 50% recycling and composting by 2020
- Leicestershire Waste Management Partnership (consisting of all the local authorities in Leicestershire) adopted the Leicestershire Municipal Waste Management Strategy (LMWMS) in 2006. The LMWMS committed the Leicestershire authorities to achieve a 58% recycling and composting level by 2017. The LMWMS also identified that there was a need to develop a long term waste treatment solution that would divert waste from landfill and ensure that the County Council does not exceed its stipulated landfill tonnage allowance.
How will we do it?
- ·Leicestershire County Council will proceed with a procurement exercise in compliance with the European Union Procurement Directive.
- The County Council aims to identify a private sector partner that will design, build, finance and operate facilities that will assist Leicestershire to achieve its required landfill diversion targets.
- The County Council has employed technical and financial advisers who have identified the amount of rubbish that is likely to be produced over the next 30 years. The projected waste tonnages have been used to identify the required capacity of the facility during a 25 year contract. The waste projections have taken into account a range of factors, including;
- future waste growth
- future population growth
- future housing growth
- allowances for future improvements in recycling and composting performance
- Following this assessment and the evaluation of a number of different waste treatment technology options, it has been identified at this stage that the best economic solution for the county is to develop an Energy from Waste facility with Combined Heat and Power. This modelled solution will provide a benchmark against which proposed solutions will be assessed.
What different types of waste treatment technologies are there?
- A range of waste treatment technologies may be proposed by the bidders and the County Council will consider all proposals and sites. The waste treatment technologies proposed could include:
- autoclave systems
- ·energy from waste
- ·gasification
- ·mechanical biological treatment
- ·pyrolysis
Further description of each of these waste treatment technologies and common waste management terms can be found below.
Where will a facility be built? Will an incinerator be built at Bardon or Whetstone?
- At this stage in the process it is not possible to answer these questions as no decision has been taken on the location for new waste treatment facilities. As a requirement of funding support from Government, the County Council was asked to provide sites for bidders to use. However, bidders can also propose their own sites.
- The County Council owns two sites that it is proposing to offer to companies interested in bidding for the contract. These are Whetstone Recycling and Household Waste Site (RHWS) to the south west of the city and a site at Bardon in the north-west of the county.
When will the facility be open?
- At present it is anticipated that the facility will be available to process waste by 2015.
Is this going to be very expensive?
- In 2008/09, the County Council has budgeted to spend approximately £23.5million on waste management and the cost of waste disposal is anticipated to increase year on year.
- ·However, the County Council has received confirmation of £86.6million of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) credit funding from Government to assist with the cost of the project.
What is going to happen over the next few years?
- The formal tender process to identify a private sector partner will start in October 2008 and is scheduled to follow a competitive dialogue process with the preferred bidder being appointed in 2010.
- The design, planning application process followed by construction and final commissioning is scheduled to be complete by 2015.
How is Leicestershire currently performing?
- The County Council and seven District Councils achieved a recycling and composting rate of 48.4% during 2007/08. This makes it one of the highest performing counties in the country.
- All Leicestershire authorities have committed to increase recycling and composting levels to 50% by 2009/10 and 58% by 2017.
- Leicestershire currently produces approximately 210,000 tonnes of residual waste per annum (i.e. waste remaining after recycling and composting).
When will residents be able to comment on any new facility?
- A significant amount of consultation was undertaken in 2006 when stakeholders were asked to comment upon the Leicestershire Municipal Waste Management Strategy (LMWMS). This included the issue of the development of waste treatment facilities and the types of technology that could be used to ensure Leicestershire’s long term landfill diversion targets would be achieved. Please click here to read the LMWMS.
- Residents and stakeholders can comment about the long term waste treatment project at any time through the Council’s Comments, Compliments and Complaints service (please click here).
- Formal consultation will commence when a planning application is submitted and the technology type and site to be used are known.
Will the new facility affect recycling and composting?
- No. The new facility will be designed to treat the waste that is left over after recycling and composting has taken place.
- All Leicestershire authorities are highly committed to waste prevention, recycling and composting. Therefore all Leicestershire residents will continue to be encouraged to do more and more to prevent waste from arising and recycle and compost as much as possible.
How will any new facility be monitored?
- The facility will have to apply for and maintain a Pollution, Prevention and Control (PPC) licence from the Environment Agency (the Government regulatory body that is responsible for looking after the environment).
- The PPC licence will specify levels of traffic, noise, pests, litter, smells and air pollution.
- The facility will be subject to planned and ad hoc inspections by the Environment Agency to ensure that the environmental requirements stipulated in the licence are adhered to.
- Emissions associated with burning waste or fuel derived from waste is subject to strict regulation contained within the European Union Waste Incineration Directive (WID).
What will the opening hours of the facility be?
- This has yet to be determined but opening hours will be dependent upon the location of the site and statutory planning consents.
Further Information
e-mail page to a friend