The council's executive will vote tomorrow on proposals to create new recycling, composting and treatment facilities on a site off the Old Kent Road in the borough.
The proposals have been set out for a waste contract worth a total of 300 million and could see the council bidding for 40 million in Private Finance Initiative support from Defra.
Phil Davies, head of waste management and transport at Southwark council, said: “We need 40 million. There has been no decision from Defra but they have made positive noises.”
The council expects Defra to make its decision in October 2004 and even if less money is allocated than is needed, Southwark will pursue its plans. “Even if there is a shortfall in funding, the proposals are still less expensive than doing nothing because of the increasing costs of disposing waste and in non-compliance,” said Gill Davies the council's head of environment and leisure.
The contract is timetabled to go out to tender in November 2004.
Bankable
Southwark council is currently in discussion with Lattice Properties to buy the proposed waste management site, a former British Gas site. Under proposals for the PFI project the site could be home to a materials recycling facility, in-vessel composting, an end-of-life vehicle treatment facility and a mechanical biological treatment plant.
“We feel MBT is a bankable process these days for PFI projects,” said Mr Davies. The council wants the material resulting from the MBT to be used as refuse derived fuel (RDF) to be burnt for energy. But he admitted there is an issue securing markets to send the RDF.
“It is an issue for a number of plants being built at the moment, and we are working with the industry to stimulate more stable markets for it,” Mr Davies said.
Other features of the proposals for the contract include:
- Expansion of kerbside collections to include all recyclables from street properties
- Medium/high-rise recycling using “survival bags”
- Increase number of bring sites to 350
- Separate collection of green and kitchen waste for invessel composting
- Education and waste minimisation programme
Incineration
Currently, Southwark has 117,000 household producing 108,000 tonnes of household waste and has increased its recycling rate from 3% to 9% in 18 months until 2003/04. The council has a waste disposal contract with Waste Recycling Group and collections are carried out by the council's in-house team.
The council currently sends about 40,000 tonnes of waste each year to SELCHP (South East London Combined Heat and Power), which also takes waste from Lewisham, Greenwich and Bexley.
But Councillor Richard Thomas, executive member for environment and transport, said the council wants to use MBT to reduce its reliance on incineration. He said: “We do not want to end up sending more waste than we do now to incineration.”
The council has set targets for 2020 of 50% recycling and 75% recovery. Mr Davies explained that it hopes to start construction on the plant in 2006 and for it to become operational within five years.
Entec UK and Pricewaterhouse Coopers have been appointed as consultants to work on the contract. The council accepts that the plans offered by companies who tender for the contract may vary from its current proposals.
“What we are proposing is a reference project. What we want is to set out what we want and then take it to the private sector who might refine our solution considerably,” Mr Davies explained.
Register for free to comment