North Somerset HWRC to remain open
North Somerset council has announced it will keep the Backwell household waste recycling centre (HWRC) open next year, scrapping a proposal to close the facility from 1 April 2023.
The council said that this decision follows progress in wider plans to close a £17 million gap in its budget.
The proposal put forward at a council meeting was closing the site to save an estimated £300,000 a year, leaving North Somerset with two HWRCs.
Councillor Mike Solomon, North Somerset council’s executive member for neighbourhoods and community services, said: “We’ve listened to residents and the strong feeling against proposals to close Backwell HWRC and acted on this by removing this from next year’s budget.
“Like all councils across the country, we face continuing inflationary cost pressures and stretched resources. We continue to work hard to explore cost savings that could be made right across the council to close the budget gap for next year, which is about 10% of our net budget.”
There were approximately 80,000 visits to the Backwell HWRC in 2021/22.
Residents asked for opinion on glass recycling plans
Newark and Sherwood district council is calling on residents to take part in a public consultation on a proposed kerbside glass recycling service.
The council said it has been exploring the possibility of providing a kerbside glass collection following comments received by residents on the latest district wide resident survey.
Results indicated that residents rated waste and recycling as the most important service delivered by the local authority, it said.
Councillor David Lloyd, leader of Newark and Sherwood district council, said: “Creating a greener district is a top for priority for local residents and therefore a top priority for the Council. We’ve listened. And now we need peoples’ views to move forward.
“Peoples’ responses will help us decide whether this service is something that’s wanted and, if it is, how we can best introduce it.”
The survey can be completed online.
The proposed kerbside recycling scheme would provide those residents who wish to receive the service with an additional smaller wheelie bin with collections every eight weeks.
Cornwall highlights contamination at HWRCs
Cornwall council has called on residents to sort their rubbish before taking it to the tip, with about a quarter of items in the rubbish skips at its HWRCs recyclable.
In a campaign rolled out by the council, titled ‘Sorted!’, people are being asked to separate their unwanted items into different materials, such as wood, metals, batteries, green waste, and electricals, before setting off to their local recycling centre.
Councillor Carol Mould, portfolio holder for neighbourhoods at Cornwall Council, said: “But you may find that you don’t need to take a trip in the first place. If your items could be of use to someone else, especially furniture of good-quality clothes donate them to charity.”
The council is also reminding businesses to make sure they dispose of their rubbish legally, noting that the HWRCs, which are paid for by council taxpayers, are for household waste and recycling only.
Southend to tender for contract
Southend-on-Sea city council has announced that it will undertake a full tender exercise to decide the future of its waste contract from October 2023 onwards.
The local authority explained that the new contract would not start until October 2023 “at the earliest”.
The council added that “subject to the democratic process, it will start the work to tender for a new contract, using what is known as the competitive dialogue process”. This approach means that a short-term extension of the current Veolia contract is “likely to be required”.
According to the cabinet, any new contract should ‘explore the viability of maintaining the current collection service, or something similar via market engagement.’ And, it should support the move to net zero by 2030 and the target of 65% recycling rate by 2035.
The report discussed two viable options, with cabinet councillors voting against the recommended one to extend the current Veolia contract, which would have seen changes to the service from October, the council continued.
The reports will be further considered later this month.
Andusia and Grundon strike ‘loose’ RDF deal
Andusia has announced that it has struck a one-year deal with Grundon Waste Management to supply 10,000 tonnes of ‘loose’ refuse derived fuel (RDF) to the Colnbrook energy from waste facility.
According to Andusia, the deal will see RDF transported to Grundon’s facility “loose on walking floors systems”, as opposed to the traditional baled and wrapped form.
A walking floor trailer, also known as a ‘moving floor’ trailer, enables virtually any type of bulk material to be transported loosely and for it to be removed safely without the need for it to be ‘tipped’ out of the trailer.
Jantschitsch, a walking floor haulier, worked with the two companies for the deal.
Alec Powell, general manager for resource & recovery at Grundon, said: “As the UK’s EfW infrastructure develops it is vital that we have dependable cost-effective outlets for RDF. As we continue this transition, Andusia’s knowledge and expertise within this space made it an easy decision to partner with them”.
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