Councillors approved proposals to examine the experiences from local authorities in other parts of the country that have reduced their waste service costs, at a meeting of the county’s Environment, Development and Transport Committee on Friday (8 July).
The Partnership, which is made up of Norfolk county council and the county’s seven district authorities, is working to produce recommendations for improving waste services within the region, whilst also targeting cost savings of around £2 million a year by 2018/19.
Work is to be carried out to gauge the impact that more regular food waste collections and improving the volume and quality of recyclable waste collected from households could have on residual waste tonnages.
According to the council, this will “include a consideration of whether refuse collections can be reduced in frequency” with three or even four weekly collections expected to be under the microscope.
The project will also include a review of the current waste infrastructure available within the county, looking at the need for depots, transfer stations and recycling facilities.
As a result of the ongoing review of waste services across the country, Norfolk has claimed that there is ‘uncertainty’ over future volumes and composition of residual waste, and councillors have therefore agreed to delay any future procurement of a residual waste treatment contract.
Residual waste
Norfolk council is due to procure a long term solution for the treatment of its residual waste after having cancelled a £500 million contract with Cory Wheelabrator to design build and operate a 268,000 tonnes-per-year capacity energy from waste plant in 2014 (see letsrecycle.com story).
The controversial project had faced fierce opposition from local residents, meaning that the council has had to look closely at any future potential outlets for the region’s residual waste. To date, the council has put in place interim contracts to send waste in the form of refuse derived fuel to Germany and the Netherlands – but is seeking a longer term outlet for the material beyond the end of the decade.
As part of the work to assess future options for residual waste, Norfolk has commissioned an independent study by engineering and management consultancy Mott MacDonald into existing residual waste treatment technologies.
The study concluded that four techniques exist for treating residual waste, including:
- Material recovery facility with recyclates and refuse derived fuel production.
- Mechanical biological treatment with composting, bio-drying or anaerobic digestion treatment and refuse derived fuel production.
- Energy from waste outside Norfolk.
- Enzymatic Hydrolysis (new technology).
The consultancy firm also recommended that the authority take part in a soft market testing exercise with waste management companies to supplement the findings of the report.
It was also decided the council’s policy on incineration – which deems that the council ‘Any proposed waste treatment facility in Norfolk will reduce dependency on landfill and must be further up the waste hierarchy than incineration’ – was also acknowledged.
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