The partnership, which has been in place since 1993, achieved 25% recycling levels by the year 2000 and kerbside recycling provision for 90% of the Hampshire's households. It has been seen as a guiding light by other local authorities in the UK in relation to the successful relationship between the county council and the 13 district councils.
In the last year Project Integra has come under fire because of a lack of sorting capacity, which caused it to landfill some of its dry recyclables (see letsrecycle.com story). This situation has been solved by the use of facilities in Essex and Berkshire until a new materials recycling facility comes online in 2004.
But fresh difficulties have now arisen over funding within the waste partnership. The situation has arisen because of a substantial amount of money from the sale of recyclable materials that has not been distributed between the members of Project Integra.
During preliminary discussions, a number of the councils demanded an equal share of the funds available regardless of the amount of investment in recycling each authority had put in. However, this caused outrage among the high performing councils, such as New Forest district council, which recycles around 21.6%.
Spoils
New Forest spokesman Dave Atwill told letsrecycle.com: “The more you recycle, the more should be coming back from the sales of recyclates. But some of the councils haven't been as forthcoming with what they put into the system in terms of recycling, and yet when the spoils are divided up, some of those councillors want an equal share. But some of them haven't even recycled at all.”
The council believes around 80,000 has come from the sale of its recyclates from January 2000 to September 2002, but is angry that councils like Gosport and Southampton have demanded a share without putting anything into the pot whatsoever.
It was thought in some quarters that part of the problem in the relationships between the authorities could be politically motivated.
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