When the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS) starts in April, Milton Keynes and the other 120 waste disposal authorities in England will be limited in the amount of biodegradable waste they send to landfill.
Under the scheme, Milton Keynes is allowed to send 66,028 tonnes of biodegradable waste to landfill in the first year, 2005/06, but must reduce this to 44,753 tonnes by 2010.
”The collection of more biodegradable waste is a perfect option for us because it will count towards both LATS and recycling rates “
– Melanie Chiltern, Milton Keynes council
Some councils believe incineration may be the answer to diverting their waste from landfill, but Milton Keynes councillors pledged not to adopt such a strategy after residents' objected to a proposal by waste firm Shanks in the Bletchley area.
Speaking to letsrecycle.com, recycling officer Melanie Chiltern said that options being discussed to reach LATS targets now include a new in-vessel composting facility to be built alongside the existing materials recycling facility at Wolverton.
Ms Chiltern said: “We are at the ideas stage of a food waste collection for the authority at the moment, and we would like to have an in-vessel composter added at our MRF site. At the moment this is just an idea, though.
“Because of our no-incineration policy it is going to be difficult for us to reach our LATS targets. Obviously the collection of more biodegradable waste is a perfect option for us because it will count towards both LATS and recycling rates,” she explained.
Trials
Milton Keynes council will be funding six pilots trialling the collection of food waste. Each trial will run for a minimum of six months and be rolled out to around 500 households. Ms Chiltern said that the council wanted to see how different variations of a food waste collection service would affect the authority's current schemes.
The borough currently runs a weekly pink sack kerbside collection scheme for its recyclables, as well as a weekly blue box scheme for glass and a fortnightly garden waste scheme. The garden waste bin is an opt-in service which residents have to pay to join, and around a quarter of households with gardens have joined the scheme, about 25,000 properties.
The council currently recycles or composts about 24% of its household waste, and has targets to reach a 30% rate by 2005/06.
In 2007 Milton Keynes will see its current collection scheme, its MRF contract with Cutts Recycling, and its garden waste contract all coming to an end.
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Ms Chiltern said: “Everything is geared towards 2007, it will be a big year. We will be looking to sign some long-term contracts in that year and the collection of food waste will hopefully be part of it. We want to have these trials rolled out in the next two to three months so we can run thorough trials in time for 2007.”
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