This cash means we can deliver the maximum benefits for the people of Staffordshire with the minimum possible costs to the council tax payer
John Taylor, Staffordshire county council
Defra has approved applications for £122.4 million in support for Staffordshire and £73.5 million in support for the South Tyne and Wear Waste Partnership – which deals with the waste from Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland councils.
Staffordshire council has earmarked the cash for an energy-from-waste facility, which it plans to develop at the Four Ashes Industrial Estate in the south of the county, while South Tyne and Wear is yet to decide how it intends to spend the money on managing its region's waste – looking at a number of waste treatment technologies ranging from autoclaving to MBT.
Welcoming the award of funding for South Tyne and Wear, waste minister Joan Ruddock said: “PFI projects like this one are essential to help England reduce its reliance on landfill and to help tackle climate change.
“Dealing with our waste in a more sustainable way not only increases recycling and reduces harmful landfill emissions, but can also create significant market opportunities.
“I am pleased to see these authorities working together to deliver this ambitious project,” she added.
South Tyne and Wear
The South Tyne and Wear Waste Management Partnership has pursued the PFI route since December and intends to use the money to help boost the region's recycling rate from 26% to 50% by 2020, while tackling the region's 370,000 tonnes of waste a year (see letsrecycle.com story).
Chair of the partnership, councillor Michael McNestry said: “This funding is great news – it means we can find a way of recovering value from our non-recycled rubbish, instead of just throwing it away. We simply can't continue to only landfill.
“Burying our rubbish produces methane which is a greenhouse gas with the highest environmental impact. We're running out of landfill space and landfill will keep getting more expensive, which will cost the public money,” he added.
Technologies likely to be considered in South Tyne and Wear are mechanical biological treatment with anaerobic or aerobic digestion (MBT), autoclaving and energy from waste (EfW). Last August, anaerobic digestion was touted as a possible solution to the partnership's residual waste problem and was one of nine waste management technologies previously considered (see letsrecycle.com story).
However, the partnership is keen to highlight that it is willing to listen to proposals made by bidders for the facility, which could be required to process up to 200,000 tonnes of material each year and would possibly be fully operational by 2013.
The partnership has launched a leaflet entitled ‘Load of Rubbish – the facts about our waste' to explain to residents the technology being considered under the PFI grant, while the partnership cabinet is due to meet on Wednesday (July 30) to approve the commencement of the principal procurement of waste management services and confirm the process and evaluation methodology that the procurement will undertake.
Staffordshire
In Staffordshire, the energy from waste project planned for Four Ashes is expected to play an important part in Staffordshire's ‘zero waste to landfill' policy, which aims to tackle the rising environmental and economic costs of landfill by ensuring that maximum value is extracted from residual waste left over after recycling.
The plant is expected to divert 30,000 tonnes of waste from landfill a year and produce enough electricity to power 24,000 homes. This will add to the county's existing energy-from-waste facility in Stoke which currently handles a third of the region's 600,000 tonnes of annual residual waste.
Staffordshire council said that the Government was so impressed by it's proposals that it make the massive award decision in record time.
Mrs Ruddock said: “I am pleased to see the authority pursuing an ambitious solution which can achieve major carbon benefits.”
John Taylor, Staffordshire county council leader, said: “This cash means we can deliver the maximum benefits for the people of Staffordshire with the minimum possible costs to the council tax payer. We can maximise recycling, reduce unpopular landfill operations and generate energy.”
“The Staffordshire approach has involved being open, honest and upfront about the solutions at every stage and working partnership to deliver the maximum value for Staffordshire people. This approach has been recognised by the Government in what is the biggest single waste project award in the UK to date,” he added.
Plans for the energy-from-waste plant at Four Ashes have been lodged with the planning authority and will be open for comment until the end of the summer.
In the meantime, the council said it would continue to keep local residents and communities updated on the development of the project.
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