From June 1 2016, the council will end commingled garden and food waste collections “in line with the request from Lancashire county council as the disposal authority”.
Separate food waste collections – introduced in 2010 for certain properties without gardens – will also come to an end on this date, following a cabinet decision this week (6 April).
However, normal garden waste collections will continue, with the council seeking to procure new open-windrow composting contracts to take this waste.
The move follows Lancashire county council’s decision to end in-vessel composting (IVC) services at its two mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plants at Farington and Thornton – operated by council-owned Global Renewables Lancashire Operations Ltd – in February, resulting in 250 job losses (see letsrecycle.com story).
As a result, the county council informed all districts that as of 1 April 2016, it would no longer be accepting mixed garden and food waste due to its “very severe financial situation”
However, Lancashire is reportedly “agreeable” to extending this period to 1 June to allow more time to inform South Ribble residents of the changes.
Cutting services at the MBT plants is expected to save the county around £5-8 million a year by the end of 2018, but it has meant some districts and boroughs in Lancashire having to modify local organics collection services in line with this decision.
“This position has also been influenced by Lancashire county council’s recent decision to ‘moth ball’ some of the facilities at the Farington Waste Recovery Park and operate part of the site as a transfer station.”
As well as South Ribble, other authorities in the county affected by the IVC changes are Wyre, Chorley, Fylde borough, city of Lancaster and Preston city councils.
South Ribble
According to a South Ribble council report considered by the cabinet members yesterday, maintaining food and organic waste collection services would cost the borough an additional £450,000-£540,000 a year due to needing to find another IVC processor.
Cutting the service, meanwhile, is expected to mean a “small” reduction in collection costs of around £13,000 a year.
The borough council report states: “This position has also been influenced by Lancashire county council’s recent decision to ‘moth ball’ some of the facilities at the Farington Waste Recovery Park and operate part of the site as a transfer station.”
The county council has offered South Ribble the option of a chargeable food waste collection service for processing at an alternative site at an indicative cost of £30 tonne, potentially costing South Ribble around £3,000 for the 100 tonnes of food waste it currently collects. Otherwise, food waste will be disposed of in residual waste bins.
Collections of refuse, recyclables and organic waste in South Ribble are operated by FCC Environment under a seven-year contract agreed last June (see letsrecycle.com story).
Lancashire
Announcing its intention to end mixed garden and food waste processing in the county last month, Lancashire council said it would continue to compost green waste “but at cheaper, outdoor facilities”.
County councillor and lead member for waste, Clare Pritchard, said: “Our current processing facilities were designed to prevent any organic waste, including combined green garden waste and food waste, from being landfilled. Sharp annual increases in landfill tax at the time the facilities were established meant it would cost vastly more to continue landfilling organic waste. These increases have since slowed, and other incentives to curtail the landfill of organics have now stopped.
She added: “People are throwing far less food away now, meaning the amount of food in our waste has greatly declined, leaving us with a process which is costly in order to safely compost the tiny amount (1%) of food waste that is usually mixed with garden waste.”
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