Manchester councils seek views on dealing with waste

The authorities of Wigan, Manchester, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford Stockport, Tameside and Trafford, are launching a consultation on May 18 to ask residents the best way of tackling all waste streams produced in the region.

” Waste facilities are often not popular, but using new technologies and facilities that are properly located and designed can help to provide sustainable solution to solve our waste problem.“
– Richard Leyshon, Officer Waste Plan Steering Group
This will incorporate plans for new waste facilities to treat municipal waste already set down in Viridor and Laing's preferred bid for Manchester's long-term waste disposal contract (see letsrecycle.com) and will be fed into a Joint Waste Development Plan.

However, the document will also focus on facilities needed from 2010 to manage non-municipal waste streams such as commercial, industrial, construction and demolition waste – for which no plans have yet been set out.

Alethea Faulkner, is the waste and minerals planning officers for the Greater Manchester Geological Unit, which is preparing the development plan. She explained that in the revised waste strategy, due to be published in May, councils expect a greater role in planning for non-municipal waste.

She said: “National guidelines set out that we need to set out plans for more than one waste stream arising in the area. We already know what facilities the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority want to provide from a municipal point of view but that is only a small part of the waste stream.”

Arisings


Ms Faulkner explained that the partnership was currently commissioning a study with the North West Development Agency and other councils in the North West. This would provide information on construction and demolition waste asrisings, and is due to be completed this summer. It will be fed into the next stage of the consultation.

She explained that by working together to tackle waste from businesses, the councils would make savings from being able to provide fewer, larger waste facilities.
She added: “It was more cost effective to produce one document for all authorities and it means there will be a potential economy of scale in developing new facilities.”

Sustainable


Richard Leyshon, chair of the Greater Manchester Officer Waste Plan Steering Group, explained that joint working would help Manchester become more sustainable.

He said: “We need to ensure that we are capable of managing the waste we produce in as sustainable a way as possible, and this means all of the Greater Manchester councils need to work together.”

“Waste facilities are often not popular, but using new technologies and facilities that are properly located and designed can help to provide sustainable solution to solve our waste problem,” he added.