Buckinghamshire seeks residents&#39 views on waste strategy

Buckinghamshire county council and its four districts are currently revising their 2001 – 2021 waste strategy in order to bring it in line with landfill avoidance and recycling targets set since the original strategy was put in place.

” MBT pleases people because it is possible to recycle more and if residents are happy to pay for that then fine.“
– Cllr John Warder, Buckinghamshire CC
The partnership has already decided on a new recycling scheme, which it hopes to have rolled out to the whole county by 2008. The next phase of consultation will focus on a waste treatment strategy.

Councillor John Warder told letsrecycle.com that early estimates indicated that using mechanical biological treatment for residual wastes would cost more than other treatments. But, he said the county would go down that route if residents wished it.

Cllr Warder said: “MBT pleases people because it is possible to recycle more and if residents are happy to pay for that then fine, but they must be aware of the additional costs.”

But the council pointed out that no decisions had been made as of yet, with the consultation having a major hand in the chosen route.

Costs
Buckinghamshire has enlisted Devon council to calculate waste technology costs in the county.

Using Devon as an example, Buckingamshire estimates that energy-from-waste and gasification and pyrolysis technologies would cost around 180 – 190 million to build and run, but MBT would actually be nearer 280 million.

Residents are being consulted on again through workshops and a consultation document on the possible choices for waste treatment, the consultation closes on March 24. Following a previous questionnaire on the whole of waste management in Buckinghamshire 11,000 residents responded.

The four districts in Buckinghamshire – Aylesbury Vale, Chiltern, South Bucks and Wycombe – have already begun to roll out the recycling scheme to its residents.

It is hoped that all households in the county will have a collection of glass, paper and organic waste by 2008. Glass is collected once a month, while paper and organics are collected on an alternate weekly collection opposite refuse.