£700m deal will turn county’s waste into fuel
Nov 22 2008 by Tony Henderson, The Journal
A COUNCIL has taken action to avoid being hit by millions of pounds in penalty charges if it misses waste targets. Under the scheme, almost half of Cumbria’s waste will be turned into fuel for industry.
UK and EU legislation requires councils to divert increasing volumes of rubbish away from landfill.
Using 1995 as a baseline, councils must divert 25% of that figure from landfill by 2010, 50% by 2013, and 65% by 2020.
Should national goals be missed, the EU could levy daily fines on the UK Government, which may be passed on to councils who miss their waste targets.
The Audit Commission has advised that councils in such a position could face “fines” of up to £7m a year.
The Government’s own landfill tax, currently set at £32 a tonne, is due to rise to £48 by 2010.
If councils exceed their landfill allowance figures, they could face a penalty of £150 a tonne.
Cumbria County Council has estimated that, even at higher rates of recycling, hitting the 2013 target is unlikely.
The landfill tax alone will add £2m in costs for the council for each of the next two years, and if the council exceeds its landfill tonnage allowance, it could face penalties of £5.2m a year by 2013.
Against this backdrop, a meeting of the full council on Thursday approved a 25-year deal worth more than £700m to reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill by 80%. It agreed to the signing of a contract with waste management company Shanks Group – a move that will see much of the county’s waste sent to mechanical biological treatment plants, one of which will be built at Hespin Wood in Carlisle.
The waste will be shredded, dried, heated and fermented and turned into solid recovered fuel to replace fossil fuels in energy-intensive industries. Glass and stone will be recycled as aggregate and metals will also be recycled.
Council leader Stewart Young said: “There are some issues that are so big that they transcend party politics and the future of waste disposal is one of those issues.”
Tim Knowles, cabinet member for waste management, said: “It is probably the biggest single thing we as councillors will ever do to reduce our county’s carbon footprint.
“It will make Cumbria one of the greenest counties in Britain and will put us at the forefront of the national waste scene.”
