Residents spoken to by letsrecycle.com have said that they are angry they were not told about the landfilling. One remarked: “I have wasted water by washing cans only for them to be thrown away.”
The concerns come as an inquiry is launched into why 1,300 tonnes of recyclables and green waste were landfilled last year. One issue that will be investigated is why the public were not made aware of the problem sooner.
Reports in the local newspaper, the Southampton Echo, have suggested that contractor Hampshire Waste Services, which is a division of Onyx Environmental, could be penalised over the landfilling.
A spokeswoman for the company declined to comment. Passing all enquiries to Hampshire County Council, she said: “We are directed by Hampshire County Council over the whole contract. Whatever we do is directed by them.”
Hampshire County Council's waste chief Bob Lisney told letsrecycle.com that the issue needed to be seen in perspective and that the county had made considerable progress in recycling. “We have a piece of local difficulty but will emerge from it and the public will see we have delivered on our promises. The strength of Project Integra – Hampshire's waste management programme – lies in the work and enthusiasm of all parties, from contractors to officers.”
Mr Lisney emphasised that no recyclables had been landfilled this year and pointed to the overall total of waste arisings in Hampshire at 850,000 tonnes. Referring to the landfilling, he said: “You can't turn the tap off. The worst thing you can do is to say that you can't handle the material. ”
He conceded that the problem could have been flagged up earlier although it had been discussed last year and the details were on the public register.
Mature
Project Integra has started to mature, said Mr Lisney, and is very important in service terms. “For the county the waste management budget is now the fourth largest spending department and is equivalent to more than that spent by individual boroughs, such as Eastleigh.”
The management board of Project Integra has been strengthened and it has a new constitution with full local government committee status. But, the project is stopping short of adopting the waste authority model favoured in the government's Strategy Unit report.
Mr Lisney said that the project was not expecting to see massive increases in recycling capacity this year but was looking to the beginning of 2005. “Then we could have the capability of 40% material recycling and 45% energy recovery.”
He also pointed to the need to start up material recycling facilities with good volumes of material and expected the new MRF at Alton to start up at a high throughput. “When the Portsmouth MRF opened with a 46,000 tonne capacity, we started collection schemes six months in advance. We are having to do the same with Alton which will handle 90,000 tonnes.”
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