Public asked for views on six options for waste in Essex

A public consultation brochure has been produced, and is available at www.waronwaste.org, with six different options for local residents to consider.

In 2001-02, Essex produced 860,000 tonnes of waste – a 24.4% increase on the 1996-97 total. The new waste strategy will look to build on the improvement in recycling facilities in the county (see letsrecycle.com story) and the 20% recycling rate of municipal rate to reach targets of 40% recycling or composting of household waste by the end of 2004 and 60% by 2007.

The public are being asked for their views on six waste options via the new website

A new waste management advisory board has been set up to oversee the formulation of the 25-year strategy. The board has appointed the consultants Environmental Resources Management to examine the current and future situation and review options for Essex's waste.

Commenting on the consultation, councillor Trevor Miller, chair of the new advisory board, said: “Waste minimisation will be fundamental to the strategy in order to slow, halt and ultimately reverse the growth in waste production that is unsustainable.”

He added: “The targets the authorities have been set are ambitious, and new infrastructure will be required in order to see that these are met and that the wastes we will inevitably produce, after minimisation measures have been implemented, are properly managed.”

Options
The public consultation will include seminars for interested parties and opinion polls as well as the website, which lays out all the relevant information, from the current state of waste in Essex to the advantages and disadvantages of each form of waste treatment.

The public are being asked for their views on six different options, all of which have recycling and composting as a central theme, with different targets on infrastructure in each option and the possibility of thermal treatment and mechanical biological treatment for various amounts of the county's waste.

Click here for full details of the six options.

Options five and six, which use a much higher amount of thermal or mechanical biological treatment would be the most cost effective options according to the consultation document, with options one and two the most expensive because of the high amount of recycling.

“The authorities themselves favour a strategy led by high levels of recycling and composting, and recycling trials have already been undertaken in Braintree, Chelmsford and Colchester,” Councillor Miller said. “Should further diversion be necessary, the authorities consider incineration to be the bottom of the hierarchy of options for the diversion of waste from landfill.”

The consultation process will come to a close in early 2003, when the Waste Management Advisory Board will recommend a strategy to the 15 Essex councils.