Sandwell to seek 250m waste contract

The cabinet of the West Midlands council agreed on Wednesday to let a long-term contract to treat up to 200,000 tonnes of waste a year.

Contractors will also have to design, build and operate a mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plant to treat residual household waste alongside a materials recycling facility (MRF).

Sandwell, which currently runs waste management services in-house, hopes that the contract will enable it to boost its current 20% recycling and composting rate to 50%. It is seeking to avoid financial penalties under the government's Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme, which requires councils to divert more and more waste from landfill each year.

Councillor Mahboob Hussain, Sandwell's cabinet member for neighbourhoods, said: “We are proposing a partnership with private sector expertise and investment to deliver high quality, value-for-money services for the people of Sandwell.”

He explained: “Waste collection and street cleansing will remain public services and give us a tidier borough, slash the amount of waste sent to landfill and more than double recycling. Council taxpayers face penalties of up to £88 million between 2009 and 2020 if we don't meet targets.”

MBT

Under its proposed plans, Sandwell hopes to spend £33 million on its new MBT and MRF facilities. The MRF will sort dry recyclables collected at the kerbside and in Sandwell's civic amenity sites including paper, glass and cans.

Meanwhile, the West Midlands' council's MBT plant will subject residual “black bag” rubbish to mechanical and biological processes to remove materials for recycling and reduce its biodegradable content. This is being proposed as an alternative to incineration which the council stressed it would not be pursuing.

Sandwell council leader, Cllr Bill Thomas, said: “The path we are proposing is one that most local authorities have already gone done. At the end of the day the cost to the taxpayer of doing nothing means it just isn't a viable option.”