The new strategy, agreed by councillors at a meeting last week, sets out how the city is to get from the current 5% recycling rate to 10% by 2003-04 and 18% by 2005-06, as well as proposing options to move towards a 45% recycling rate by 2015.
The strategy is split into two time-periods, with some actions that need to be taken before 2006 and others set for 2010 to ensure that the 2% growth rate of household waste does not see recycling rates decreasing after 2006.
By 2006, the strategy predicts that over 250,000 tonnes of waste will be generated by residents each year in the city. Of this, the council believes over 45,000 tonnes will be recycled, 30,000 tonnes will be landfilled and about 180,000 tonnes will go to a new energy from waste plant to replace the existing facility at Barnard Road.
Working with contractors Onyx, who signed a 30-year contract with Sheffield in August 2001 (see letsrecycle.com story), priorities in the new strategy for the period up to 2006 include:
- Developing a household paper and card recycling service to 190,000 properties;
- Refurbishing five recycling centres;
- Taking part in the 'Let's Sort it…Sheffield' waste awareness campaign;
- Starting a community composting network;
- Building a new energy recovery plant.
Mike Doherty, head of waste management at the city council said: “By working in partnership with Onyx Sheffield, and other partners from the voluntary and commercial sectors, these plans will increase waste reduction, recycling and re-use rates.
The first wave of blue bins for paper and card are expected to be delivered this month to 40,000 households in the north of the city, and the first refurbished recycling centre – at Blackstock Road – has just been reopened.
Mr Doherty explained: “We are already making a great deal of progress with services coming in such as the blue bins for paper and card, a new local composting network and the refurbished recycling centres working alongside existing services such as the district heating scheme. The new initiatives proposed for 2010 will improve our record on waste even further.”
Additional plans to be implemented by 2010 include:
- New recycling facilities for electrical goods;
- Ensuring that new housing developments have communal recycling facilities;
- A new recycling centre and a green waste composting facility in the south west of the city;
- Establishing home composting to 25% of households;
- A nappy laundry service and re-use scheme in a quarter of the city's electoral wards;
- Extending plastic recycling facilities to a half of all bring sites;
- Facilities for disposing of batteries, fluorescent tubes and long life bulbs;
- A green waste kerbside collection service to 90% of households.
Recovery
Since Sheffield has only one landfill site licensed to take household waste, about 180,000 out of the city's annual 240,000 tonnes of household waste will go to the new incinerator replacing the existing facility at Bernard Road.
At the moment, 37% of household waste is disposed of through energy-from-waste, with the existing plant producing 6.8MW of electricity. The 225,000 tonne replacement plant will generate 19MW of electricity, which will be linked up to the national grid.
Speaking to letsrecycle.com Onyx chief executive Cyrille du Peloux said that technology and expertise from one of Onyx's sister companies under parent organisation Veolia (formerly Vivendi Environmental) would be used in the new plant.
Mr du Peloux said: “We strongly believe that energy-from-waste is part of the game.
Even if you increase the recycling rates you cannot put everything in landfills, it's not feasible. We will have no more void capacity – it's too crowded in this country, there are too many parks and houses. If you don't put anything in landfill, you have to burn it, that's the best way, with modern plants that provide energy and heat from the waste.”
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