As the county continues to develop its joint municipal waste management strategy, it believes the new contract with EWC will help to increase recycling rates at the centres from the current 40% level to 60%.
 Partners: (left to right) EWC managing director Bill Edwards and technical director Kevin Wood with Cllr Mike Preston and Matthew Lugg of Leicestershire county council |
The contract, which begins on July 1, is set to last seven years with an option for the county council to extend it for a further three years. It is the first time that a single contractor has been appointed for the service.
One key aspect of the new contract will be that waste collected at the sites will be compacted to reduce the number of vehicle movements needed.
EWC
EWC provides a range of compactors, containers, balers, grinding systems and shredders and is the UK supply agent for Husmann compactors.
Prof. Mike Preston, the county council’s cabinet member for waste management, said: “The new contractors propose high but achievable recycling rates with far less waste sent to landfill and fewer lorry trips. With an improved service delivery and the potential for reducing the environmental impact there are increased benefits for Leicestershire residents.”
Residents currently take around 125,000 tonnes of municipal waste to the County Councils sites each year – about a third of the county's municipal waste. Overall, the county recycled 34% of household waste in 2004/05.
Strategy
Leicestershire's waste partnership of county and districts is currently putting the final touches to its long term plan, the Leicestershire Municipal Waste Management Strategy 2006.
Developed by consultancy Eunomia, the draft strategy includes waste minimisation initiatives based on home composting programmes and a new weekly kitchen waste collection service that will require an in-vessel composting contract by 2009. Existing dry recyclable collections will be expanded to take in a “comprehensive” range of materials each week by 2012.
The strategy will also see the procurement process starting in 2006/07 for residual waste treatment technology. This will take place in two phases – from 2011/12 and from 2015/16 – to divert material from landfill.
The partnership completed a full public consultation on the strategy earlier this year, and is to conclude the assessment of its environmental impact later this month.
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Leicestershire has been told by Defra to reduce the amount of biodegradable material it sends to landfill from 185,000 tonnes this year to just 64,375 tonnes by 2019/2020. Failure to do so would mean significant fines.
Consultants drafting the waste strategy believe that to meet these Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme targets, new residual waste treatment plants able to deal with 75,000 tonnes of material will be needed from 2010/11 to 2012/13. And, they believe treatment capacity for at least a further 35,000 tonnes of residual waste each year will be needed from 2013/14.
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