The Assembly is required to produce a regional waste strategy and has launched the draft for consultation until September 26, 2003. After the responses have been analysed, the final draft of the strategy will be published in the autumn and it will be implemented by the NWRA in early 2004.
Councillor Derek Boden, leader of the North West Regional Assembly, said: “The draft Regional Waste Strategy will provide an opportunity for people from across the North West – those involved in the waste industry and the general public alike, to put forward suggestions as to how to manage the region's waste. Only with this level of consultation can the problem really start to be addressed.”
The Assembly covers Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside. It brings together representatives from the public, private, voluntary and community sectors in North West England for a regional approach to strategic issues.
The strategy will not only set recycling targets for municipal waste, it will also challenge the industrial, commercial, construction and demolition waste streams to reduce, re-use and recycle. The targets it sets for municipal waste start are:
- 25% by 2005
- 35% by 2010
- 45% by 2015
- 55% by 2020.
For commercial and industrial waste it proposes the targets of 35% recycling by 2020 but also 0% growth in waste arising “without compromising economic growth in the region”.
Limited landfill
The waste strategy warns: “In 2000-01, approximately 10 million tonnes of all waste types was deposited at landfill sites in the region. Around 90% of all municipal waste was disposed in landfill sites in this period and the region has approximately 5-6 years of capacity remaining at current rates of disposal.”
The draft strategy adds: “In order to achieve regional self-sufficiency in the final disposal of waste there is an ongoing need for additional landfill capacity for hazardous and non-hazardous wastes in the North West.”
It estimates that in the future the waste disposal authorities in the North West will need the following capacity plants to meet the UK and European targets:
| Sub Regional Area | Capacity of composting facilities required |
Capacity of MRFs required | Capacity of thermal facilities required | Residual landfill capacity requirement |
| Cheshire | 90,000 | 150,000 | 150,000 | 5157 |
| Cumbria | 60,000 | 100,000 | 130,000 | 3617 |
| Greater Manchester | 240,000 | 650,000 | 800,000 | 20478 |
| Lancashire | 190,000 | 300,000 | 300,000 | 10502 |
| Merseyside | 120,000 | 350,000 | 400,000 | 9465 |
| Warrington & Halton | 30,000 | 75,000 | 80,000 | 2250 |
| North West Total | 730,000 | 1,625,000 | 1,860,000 | 51,470 |
The strategy also urges North West local authorities to become self sufficient in terms of landfill and waste disposal, if not within their own areas, with in the region. It also urges local authorities to identify possible sites for waste treatment facilities in their local waste plans in order to fulfill the capacity they require.
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