At a briefing in central London last week (September 3), councillor Barrie Hargrove, cabinet member for transport, environment and recycling, explained that the Labour administration, which took control of the council in May 2010, wanted to ensure the local authority doubled its recycling rate to 40% by 2014.
The council, which has its waste management services delivered by Veolia Environmental Services under a £665 million waste PFI deal (see letsrecycle.com story), has therefore opted to bring forward plans for the service to October 2010, having initially planned for food waste collections to be rolled-out in 2015.
The trial, which will be held in the areas of Dulwich, Camberwell, Nunhead, Peckham and Rotherhithe, is set to cost the council an initial outlay of £100,000.
However, it has insisted that once the scheme has been rolled-out to all applicable households it would start to accrue savings through landfill diversion costs and would become cost neutral to operate.
Cllr Hargrove said: “There is a big problem with food waste going to landfill, as it lets off a lot more emissions. I don't think that anybody can argue that we could continue to send our organic material there. From that point-of-view it is what we are trying to achieve.”
Preparation
Preparatory work on the service will be rolled-out this week (September 6), with the council issuing biodegradable bin liners to on-street properties in the pilot area. The council said it would also issue in-door caddies for residents if they so requested.
Residents will then be able to dispose of the food waste in their 240 litre bins for garden waste, which will then be collected weekly rather than the current fortnightly collections. Material collected by Veolia will then be taken to an open windrow facility for reprocessing.
The waste contractor said it is currently in negotiations to send the material to an in-vessel composting facility but could name the prospective company or location.
The trial will then run from October to April 2011, at which stage the council plans to review the success of the trial. If the scheme proves successful then the local authority will look to bring all households on board. However, it has stated that the service will not be extended to those living in estates.
Development of the trial is intended to optimise the residents' existing receptacles, rather than issue them with more containers. The council said that this was also the reason behind the switch from twin-stream recyclable collections to commingled – as it would reduce the time residents need to sort material.
Commingled
Explaining the decision to move to commingled collections, the council said that the service change would also help to increase its material capture rate and add to the potential for it to achieve its target of doubling its recycling rate by the self-imposed 2014 deadline.
Annie Baker, waste contracts and strategy manager at the council, said: “We need to collect more recycling, if we offer a mixed recycling service then there is an extra saving from landfill. It is also a service that is easier for people to use and adds to something we already offer.”
Under the long-term contract with Veolia, Southwark has already broken ground on the development of an 85,000 tonnes-a-year capacity mechanical biological treatment (MBT) facility at the core of the deal (see letsrecycle.com story).
At the meeting, Veolia said it now had some of the steel structuring in place for the facility and the site is on course to be operational in early 2012.
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