The Kent Resource Partnership (KRP) and Hertfordshire Waste Partnership (HWP) have both published their annual reports for 2019/20.
Published yesterday (22 December) the reports detail the latest update on the partnerships performance in the 2019/20 financial year, including the respective overall recycling rates to date.
Recycling rates
Urbaser secured a collections contract with Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge & Malling borough councils in 2018
The Kent partnership reported a 46.7% recycling rate this year, which dropped slightly from 2018/19’s rate of 47.2%.
Since 2013/14, the KWP’s recycling and composting performance has seen a percentage increase of 7.1%.
The partnership reported that in September 2019, Tonbridge & Malling and Tunbridge Wells borough councils implemented new recycling and waste services with Urbaser, which showed a “marked improvement for both councils”, with Tunbridge Wells BC recycling over 50% for the first time.
However, the partnership said: “With our overall recycling being 46.7% this year, it demonstrates performance is not guaranteed year on year. Therefore we continue to work together with our residents to reduce, reuse and recycling as much as we can.”
Hertfordshire
HWP said that overall 2019/20 was a “positive year” as its rate increased to 52.3% from 51.7% last year.
The partnership added that nine of the HWP’s 11 partners registered “modest increases” in their respective recycling rates with only Broxbourne and Stevenage showing small reductions.
Landfill diversion
For 2019/20, KWP diverted 98.5% of waste from landfill, which decreased slightly from last year’s rate of 98.3%.
The partnership said it has continued to maintain “extremely high levels” of performance over seven years, with the amount of waste sent to landfill seeing a decrease of 91.8%.
The Hertfordshire partnership reported that while it continued to utilise a number of energy from waste (EfW) facilities, a drop in tonnages sent for energy recovery and an increase in the amount sent to landfill resulted in its landfill diversion rate falling slightly to 83.8% this year, compared with last years rate of 84.7%.
As outlined below, this was achieved by sending waste to a number of energy from waste facilities in the region.
The HWP sent residual waste to a number of facilities in the area after plans for a Veolia plant were turned down by the secretary of state
“Whilst the HWP’s continuing landfill diversion operations are to be welcomed, the illustration above continues to underline the point that the HWP’s approach is overly reliant on the use of Energy from Waste facilities in neighbouring counties,” the partnership said.
An artist’s impression of the Hoddesdon facility, which was turned down
This comes after a £1 billion partnership with Veolia was forced to end after an application to build a 320,000 tonnes per year energy from waste (EfW) plant was turned down.
Hertfordshire county council has vowed to “go back to the market” to find an outlet for the 250,000 tonnes of waste the county produces.
Access to Greatmoor (Buckinghamshire) and Ardley (Oxfordshire) is via short term interim contracts that come to an end in 2021 and are based on commissioning rates which will rise substantially once these plants become fully operational – by which time it is no means certain that similar levels of capacity will be available, the report added.
Covid-19
Both partnerships reported disruption in services due to covid-19, although the KWP reported an “overwhelming amount of appreciation” from residents for refuse workers during the national lockdown.
“We continue to monitor the threat of the virus and aim to do what we can to deliver the best recycling, waste and street cleansing services to our residents”
The Kent partnership said: “As the country looks to eradicate COVID-19, we continue to monitor the threat of the virus and aim to do what we can to deliver the best recycling, waste and street cleansing services to our residents.
The Hertfordshire partnership reported several delays in projects due to Covid-19, such as the completion of its roll out of food waste services to flats in Dacorum, and its textiles kerbside collection trial, which was due to be reviewed in March, is currently suspended.
The HWP also said that the impact of residents largely staying at home from April – June 2020 saw an “unprecedented transfer of tonnages” from the commercial sector to the domestic waste stream. The report said: “Provisional numbers available at the time of writing indicate residual waste collected at the kerbside rose by around 11.5% with a 17.2% increase in the amount of recycling collected reflecting the big increase in demand for home delivery services.”
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
