Sheffield City Council awarded Onyx a 30-year integrated waste management contract in August 2001. Under the contract, Onyx must provide the city with waste collection, recycling, energy recovery, district heating and waste disposal.
Sheffield has to triple its recycling rate in the next three years to hit government targets. Currently, Sheffield produces 240,000 tonnes of domestic waste a year and recycles just 5%. By 2005/6 Sheffield needs to recycle 18%. Onyx aims to improve recycling facilities in the city over the next few years to encourage residents to recycle more of their waste.
Onyx plans to install more bring banks, improve recycling sites and start a kerbside collection of paper and card which will cover 95% of properties in the city. A materials recycling facility will also be built to ensure that the recyclables collected retain their high quality so that they can be sold easily. The doorstep scheme will serve approximately 200,000 households and the paper and card will be collected from the kerbside and taken to Onyx's planned MRF at Beighton where it will be sorted before going to paper manufacturers.
The waste management company will work on educational and awareness-raising programmes to encourage waste reduction and participation in recycling schemes. Onyx also plans to work with local community groups to increase recycling and re-use projects and will launch schemes to encourage and support home composting.
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