The SLWP attributes the fall in volumes to the “dry, hot summer period”.
The overall waste sent for treatment at Viridor’s Beddington energy from waste (EfW) plant also fell, as did material taken to the region’s household waste recycling centres (HWRCs).
A report on performance data for the six months from April 2022 went before an SLWP committee meeting on 12 January. The SLWP manages the transfer, treatment, recycling and disposal of material from the four London boroughs of Croydon, Kingston, Merton and Sutton.
Waste volumes are falling across the country due to a variety of reported factors, including the hot summer and difficult economic times. Last week, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority reported that total waste arisings fell by 60,000 tonnes in the second quarter of the 2022/23 financial year (see letsrecycle.com story).
Contracts
Under contracts procured in 2008, Viridor Energy Ltd managed the receipt, haulage and treatment of the SLWP’s food and green waste. These contracts expired on 31 August 2022, the SLWP says.
The SLWP’s report notes the contracts “continued to operate effectively during the reporting period, as [they have] done throughout [their] entire term”.
The SLWP has procured four contracts to replace Viridor’s deals, the report says. These contracts began on 1 September 2022 and will run “until no later than” 31 March 2030.
Bio Collectors Ltd will receive and treat food waste, Olleco will collect and treat food waste and Countrystyle Recycling will collect and treat green waste. Suez Recycling and Recovery UK will receive, bulk, transport and treat green and food waste.
The SLWP’s report reads: “The new food and green waste services mobilised successfully on the 1 September 2022 with no issues to report.”
HWRCs
The report also includes details of the performances of the six HWRCs across the SLWP area, which are managed under contract by Veolia.
The sites’ combined recycling rate for the first half of the 2022/23 financial year, which ran to the end of September 2022, fell slightly to 66%, the report says.
Each site saw a drop in total tonnages brought to by residents when compared with the second quarter of 2021/22, the report says. Kimpton Park Way in Sutton and Fishers Farm in Croydon saw the greatest reduction at 31% and 19% respectively. Garth Road in Merton and Factory Lane in Croydon saw the smallest drop, at just 3% and 1% respectively.
Residual waste brought to the six HWRC sites was 9% lower than the same period in the previous year, the report says. It notes: “This downward trend is broadly comparable to the kerbside residual waste arisings”. The largest reduction in residual waste was noted in Sutton (27% down) and Kingston (19% down).
Residual waste
And, the report provides an update on the treatment of the SLWP’s residual waste. Viridor South London has treated the SLWP’s residual waste under contract at the Beddington energy from waste plant since March 2019.
The SLWP boroughs delivered just more than 98,000 tonnes of residual waste to Beddington between 1 April and 30 September 2022, the report says. This is more than 8,000 tonnes less than in the same period in the previous year and equates to a 7.7% drop in residual waste tonnages.
In the reporting period, 100% of the residual waste delivered by SLWP partner boroughs was diverted away from landfill, the report says.
Permit variation
In December 2021, Viridor applied to the Environment Agency to increase the amount of waste it could process at the Beddington EfW plant by 10%, from 347,000 to 382,000 tonnes per year. In January 2022, the SLWP vowed to oppose the plant’s expansion (see letsrecycle.com story).
The Agency ran a six-week public consultation on Viridor’s application from 10 November 2022.
The SLWP’s report reads: “The EA have stated that they will consider all comments and feedback made in the consultation, and will then summarise the key issues into a decision document and explain how and why a decision is reached.
“If, following the first consultation process, the EA reaches the decision to issue the permit variation, they will then enter into a second phase of consultation called ‘minded to issue’ consultation.”
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