We have made a policy decision not to incinerate waste within Rhondda Cynon Taf, therefore, recycling and composting are important processes to help deliver UK and European targets. Food waste forms 30% of the average Rhondda Cynon Taf refuse bin contents
Cllr Eudine Hanagan, Rhondda Cynon Taf
The grants announced by the Welsh Assembly on Friday (October 12, 2007) included an award of £850,000 to development agency the Wales Sustainability Reinvestment Trust and Blaenau Gwent county borough council.
This will help fund Wales first plastics auto sorter, in Blaenau Gwent, to sort plastics from the municipal waste stream. The plant is expected to have a 20,000 tonne per year capacity and a range of technology options are being looked at including passive infra-red (PIR) detectors.
Most of the £14 million allocation, which will be rolled-out over a two-year period, will be used to fund local authority food waste collection schemes.
Food waste
Among the councils granted funding, Rhondda Cynon Taf county borough council received a grant of £3.1 million, which was one of the highest awarded.
Rhondda Cynon Taf will use the money to purchase a fleet of eleven specialized Dennis Eagle transport vehicles to collect food waste. They will be used by Rhondda Cynon Taf and its neighbouring authority, Merthyr Tydfil county borough council.
Rhondda Cynon Taf's food waste scheme presently operates in three areas – Trealaw, Llwydcoed and Brynna (see letsrecycle.com story) – with the material being reprocessed at the in-vessel composter run by Bryn Quarry Ltd in Gelligaer.
The Welsh Assembly funding will also go towards the cost of buying food waste recycling bins and caddies to help Rhondda Cynon Taf council roll its scheme out across the county borough.
The local authority's recycling/composting rate for 2006/07 was 26% and for this year so far, it has hit 30%. It aims to reach a rate of 40% by 2009 / 2010.
Rhondda Cynon Taf council's cabinet member for better public services Cllr Eudine Hanagan said: “The news that our funding application is successful has come as a huge boost for every resident throughout the county borough.
“We have made a policy decision not to incinerate waste within Rhondda Cynon Taf, therefore, recycling and composting are important processes to help deliver UK and European targets. Food waste forms 30% of the average Rhondda Cynon Taf refuse bin contents.”
Also within the Welsh Assembly funding, Swansea council and Carmarthenshire council were jointly awarded £2.5 million to improve their respective kitchen waste recycling services. This funding will be put towards specially-built recycling collection vehicles aimed at speeding up the collection process.
Swansea council's waste management service divisional officer, Ian Whettleton, said: “We're delighted to have been given confirmation of the funding. We hope to use it to buy purpose-built collection vehicles that can separate different types of recyclables during one visit.
“The kitchen waste service is growing in popularity with residents and we've been keen to expand it further. This money will allow us to expand the service much quicker than we had planned,” Mr Whettleton added.
New facilities
Meanwhile, Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr Tydfil councils have just placed an advertisement in the Official Journal of the European Union for the procurement of kitchen waste treatment and residual waste treatment facilities, as well as disposal services.
The contract which will be for the design, build, finance and operation of the plant, is expected to last between 15 and 25 years, and has an estimated value of £200 million.
Companies have until early November to formally express their interest and return the pre-qualification questionnaire for a contract expected to begin in January 2009.
• In this week's letsrecycle.com Opinion column, Peter Mills from composting and MBT technology company New Earth Solutions discusses residual waste treatment over long-term local authority contracts.
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