The Somerset Waste Partnership will decide next month whether to roll out three-weekly residual waste collections to households from autumn 2017.
If agreed, residents in Mendip, Sedgemoor, South Somerset, Taunton Deane and West Somerset district councils would all switch from a fortnightly to three-weekly collection system.
Residents living in the Somerset districts could see black bin waste collected once every three weeks
The decision – which is hoped could lead to a 27% reduction in residual waste tonnages – comes as the Partnership finalises a contract to send refuse to Viridor’s new Avonmouth plant for 25 years.
Three-weekly collections remain subject to a final report to be presented to the Somerset Waste Board in December – once negotiations with the partner councils and collection contractor Kier have been completed.
An update on the Partnership’s ‘Recycle More’ project last month estimated the three-weekly scheme could deliver savings of £1.7 million per year before rollout costs.
Kier
The transition costs for the roll out of the service been forecast at £2.2 million, with an estimated pay-back within 18 months. This means councils would begin benefiting from the full year savings from 2019/20.
Arrangements for the funding of new collection vehicles in exchange for a contract discount to the councils have already been put in place by the Partnership with Kier.
The service changes will see the Partnership maintain its current contract with Kier, which does not expire until 2021. However, no extension has been agreed beyond that timeframe.
The Partnership has revealed that Kier’s price offers to deliver the new service model were rejected twice, initially in March 2016 and again in June. A third offer was accepted in September.
Cartons
In its negotiations with Kier and representatives of the carton recycling industry, the Partnership realised it would incur additional costs of £255,000 per year in order to collect cartons separately as part of the new service.
The Partnership has therefore opted to remove the carton collections from its plans fearing ‘minimal gain’ in recycling rates – but could roll them out ‘should all partners wish to do so’.
The service change will however see the roll out of pots, tubs and trays (PTT) recycling. But, the October report notes that some of these materials may be destined for energy recovery.
It states: “The market for post-consumer plastic PTT is still immature and currently the main outlet for these materials is export to the far east. There are risks around future demand for the materials and tightening import controls imposed by India and China.
“The proposed collection and sorting methodology will help to ensure Somerset materials are among the highest quality available but it cannot be guaranteed that all the PTT will be for materials recovery.”
Three-weekly refuse collections in Somerset were first trialled in 2014. The trial found that where the model was in place, food waste and dry recycling collections rose 45% and 28% respectively, while residual waste fell by 27%.
Viridor
An artist’s impression of the Avonmouth EfW, which Viridor aims to bring online by 2020
From April 2020, the Partnership intends to send its residual waste to Viridor’s Avonmouth energy from waste plant, which was officially announced on Friday (25 November).
The Partnership estimates the Viridor contract will span 25 years with a total value of £300 million. It estimates the gate fees to be ‘competitive’ to both the UK domestic and the current RDF export markets. However, Somerset has warned there remains ‘uncertainty around the level of saving relative to landfill from April 2020’.
And, Somerset has provided no minimum tonnage guarantee to the Avonmouth plant, though the Partnership is negotiating this point ‘in exchange for a further discount on the gate fee’. On Friday, Pennon Group claimed waste from the partner councils would make up 35% of feedstock to the facility.
In the interim period, waste will continue to be sent to landfill, while Viridor is also due to develop a waste transfer facility at Walpole off the M5, subject to planning consent.
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
