Councillors considered a series of measures which form a part of the authority’s 10-year strategy to meet the Welsh Government’s statutory target of 70% recycling by 2025 at a meeting earlier this month (June 8).
The plan includes the extension of existing waste disposal and treatment contracts for another three years while it carries out the assessment, before then procuring longer term deals to commence from 2018.
A report approved by the council’s environmental and public protection scrutiny committee recommends undertaking a ‘Necessity Test’ and a TEEP (technically, economically and environmentally practicable) assessment during 2015/16.
This would determine if the council’s collection method is in line with separate collection requirements set out in the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations which state that local authorities and contractors must collect at least paper, metal, plastic and glass separately unless it is not TEEP for them to do so, or if it is not necessary to produce ‘high quality’ recycling.
The report states that it is ‘essential that we have an evidenced based approach to ensure the collection methodology we deploy is producing high quality recyclate whilst being practical’ adding that ‘this robust evidence can then be used to make an informed decision whether a collection system change is or is not necessary at this time’.
According to the authority, the assessment would be largely funded by the Welsh Government with a ‘small contribution’ from the council. This would lead into the development of a waste strategy and implementation plan in late 2016.
The recommended plan, having been approved by the committee, will now go before the executive board for a final decision next month.
Current system
87,000 Carmarthenshire households currently have their dry recyclables – principally paper, card, cans and plastics – collected each fortnight in commingled blue bags, while residual waste is also collected fortnightly in black bags. A household food waste caddy is also collected every week.
Material is collected by Camarthenshire’s own waste disposal company, CWM, and processed at a materials recycling facility (MRF) at Nantyclaws, close to Carmarthen.
In addition, the council operates a weekly garden waste collection, for which residents pay £3.50 for a roll of 20 bags, the contents of which are combined with the food waste in collection vehicles and sent for in-vessel composting (IVC) in nearby Nantycaws.
The council is seeking to boost participation in food waste collections from the current 40% level. Additionally, 15% of black bag waste is estimated to comprise of food, which the report says is ‘an area that must be targeted in order to achieve the 70% recycling rate’.
Contracts
Speaking after the meeting this month, scrutiny committee chair, councillor Peter Cooper, said: “The waste agenda is very important, from both an environmental point of view as well as financially.
“To date, Carmarthenshire has performed extremely well; however, we must look at how we continue to deliver the service in order to achieve future recycling targets. The committee had a lively debate on the issues involved to help decide the best way forward for the county.”
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