End of an era for waste disposal in Plymouth

Instead, Plymouth will be looking to develop alternative ways of disposing of its rubbish in partnership with Devon county council and Torbay council to develop a facility that is likely to turn the waste into energy.

In the short term, the waste will be disposed by Viridor Waste Management at its commercial landfill site 20km to the West of Plymouth, near Liskeard, after the company was awarded the contract to dispose of the city's domestic waste for seven years.

However, the service will cost the council more, because now it will be paying commercial rates.

Plymouth's cabinet member for street scene and environmental regulation, councillor Michael Leaves, said: “When Chelson was first used as a dump, people did not pay much attention to the impact it had on the environment and did not know much about climate change. There was a lot less packaging and people did not buy as much.

“The world of waste is changing and so are we. Chelson is not a landfill, it's a land mountain, which cannot grow any higher.”

“We all need to recycle, reuse and compost more. This is not just about being green, it's about how much it will cost us financially. If we do not recycle more we will end up paying significantly higher Council Tax to pay for the fines we could face as well as the price we have to pay for landfill,” he added.

Recycling 

At present, residents in Plymouth are currently recycling and composting just over 30% of their household rubbish. However, neighbouring Devon council has recycled around 50%.

Mark Turner, Plymouth's strategic waste projects manager, said: “I cannot emphasis enough how important it is that people do as much recycling as they can; now the city's landfill site is no longer an option we have to pay commercial rates to dispose of rubbish that is not recyclable and on top of that, is increased landfill tax and the threat of penalties if we exceed the landfill allowances set by the government.”

PFI

In order to move forward its long-term plans for waste, Plymouth council is currently working with Devon and Torbay councils to put together an Outline Business Case, which will be submitted to Defra to gain PFI funding.

The council is hoping to gain around £50 million in credits towards the £100 milllion capital cost of a new waste management facility, which is likely to be an energy from waste plant in the Plymouth area. It is expected the facility will be operational by 2014.

Once the OBC is submitted, the partnership can start to invite bids for the long-term contract to build and operate the facility.

Chelson

In the meantime, the Chelson Meadon landfill now be capped and restored over a four year period. It is likely that in the future it will be converted into a country park for Plymouth.

The civic amenity site and household waste recycling centre located on the site will remain open to residents, while Viridor will use the site's waste transfer station to compact residual rubbish before sending it to Lean Quarry.