City of Manchester in major recycling consultation

This week saw the city council launching a major consultation that it hopes will allow more than 200,000 households to decide on how their waste is collected and recycled ahead of the city's multi-billion new PFI waste contract.

The contract, with Viridor/Laing, is now expected to be signed next month, taking in all nine collection authorities in Greater Manchester.

Meanwhile Manchester city council is contacting its residents with a combination of online surveys, telephone interviews, door-to-door visits and focus groups to decide on what kind of infrastructure its residents would use if the city council invests in new services.

With a range of “kerbit” services, the city is already collecting more than 37,000 tonnes of material a year for recycling, but with 194,000 tonnes of household waste to deal with each year, its 22% recycling rate is not enough to keep up with targets set by the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority.

To meet its targets, Manchester must recycle 28% of its household waste this year and 33% by 2010. The Authority overall – which includes eight other collection authorities in the Greater Manchester area – is averaging nearly 27% recycling rate at the moment, according to figures from April to September 2007.

Manchester city council leader Sir Richard Leese visited Longley Lane waste disposal site in Northenden on Monday to launch the consultation, which is offering a £500 prize draw for those who take part.

Under the PFI contract, the Longley Lane site will be home to one of two materials recycling facilities to be operational by 2009/10 and one of four mechanical biological treatment plants expected for 2009/10.

Launching the consultation, Cllr Leese said: “We know Manchester residents want to recycle more and we want to know how we can help them do it. We want your views about how we can do more. At the end of this consultation, the city council will act on what the residents tell us, so it's really important we get views from them on what we can do.”

Kelly Reynolds, who is project managing the consultation, explained that what Manchester is recycling is governed by the PFI contract, which is set to be signed soon with the Viridor/Laing consortium.

She said the city needed a greater range of recycling services to meet its targets, but that the council did not want to invest in systems that aren't then used by residents.

She explained: “Certain material streams which we are running are dictated by PFI contract however the current range of services which we have, aren't going to enable us to achieve the targets that we need. As a result of this we are going to need to develop and invest a lot of money in new services and we have to be confident that the services are going to be used well by residents.”

Officers have suggested that it is unlikely the city will opt for an alternate weekly collection system.

PFI

Meanwhile, Manchester's waste disposal authority announced this week that it is meeting its recycling targets overall – thanks to increased participation by residents and the efforts of the nine collection authorities of Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside and Trafford.

The GMWDA, which manages 5% of the nation's waste with its responsibility covering 958,000 homes, said recycling and composting levels at household waste recycling centres have more than doubled from 21.2% during 2004/05 to 44.74% for the six months up to September 30, 2007.

Recycling and composting from household collections for Greater Manchester have risen to 26.8% for the six months up to September 2007, up from 24.95% in the same period the previous year.

The Authority said its first priority at the moment is to encourage the residents of Greater Manchester to minimise the amount of waste they produce. “Projections for household waste for the year 2007/08 indicate a fall in waste by 8,800 tonnes,” it claimed.

Once the Private Finance Initiative contract is fully underway with Viridor Laing, the Authority said it would become “even easier for residents to recycle more of their waste, and will extract valuable recyclables and green energy from material that would previously have gone to landfill, therefore delivering a significant reduction in the region's greenhouse gases”.

The Authority is currently in final negotiations with its preferred bidder Viridor/Laing and is working towards a financial close by the end of March for the contract to begin in April.

The project involves the investment of more than £300 million in new and improved waste handling facilities, and the creation of 100 new jobs across Greater Manchester. The new facilities, virtually all to be built at existing sites, will help take residents' recycling rates to at least 50% by 2020.

Councillor Neil Swannick, Chair of GMWDA said: “The largest congratulations when these results are issued really have to go to the residents of Greater Manchester, as the results are only made possible by their participation.”

Commenting on the PFI contract, Cllr Swannick went on: “This year we expect to sign a 25 year contract with the Viridor/Laing consortium to bring to Greater Manchester the latest waste management technologies. The contract will give an even more significant push on education so that the important steps of waste Reduction, Reuse and Recycling become even more part of routine.

“The new contractor will inherit a very healthy position which will mean an excellent launch pad from which they can deliver further and ongoing improvements,” he said.