Suffolk councils sign 10-year recycling contract

The contract with Babergh, Forest Heath, Mid-Suffolk and Suffolk Coastal district councils as well as Ipswich and St Edmundsbury borough councils, will involve the sorting and sale of recyclable material.

The deal will see over a million pounds worth of investment from Viridor put into its Masons materials recycling facility (MRF) alongside the Viridor landfill at Great Blakenham. The MRF was the UK's first “dirty” MRF before being turned into a “clean” MRF in 1999 for operational and safety reasons, with councils introducing source-separated kerbside recycling collections.

Viridor said that after the latest round of investments, the MRF will have the capacity to handle 40,000 tonnes of material a year. There will also be an education centre for schools installed at the site.

Suffolk councils had some of the highest recycling and composting figures for municipal waste in the country in 2002/03, with the county area averaging a 20% rate, and some of the districts reaching rate as high as 30%.

The county generates about 400,000 tonnes of municipal waste each year, but since 1996 has suffered from high waste growth rates of up to 4% per year.

Malcolm Firth, head of environmental services at Babergh, who is chairing the new consortium of Suffolk councils, said that the new contract with Viridor would see closer working relationships between the collection authorities to meet government recycling targets.

Suffolk councils have an eye on forthcoming government limits on the landfilling of biodegradable waste. Under the landfill allowance trading scheme, expected to begin in 2005, the councils believe they will landfill less waste than the possible level of allowances “until at least 2012”.

Strategy
Under the councils' joint waste strategy, adopted in October 2003, the aim is to introduce separate collections of recyclables, green waste and residual waste from at least 80% of households in Suffolk by 2010. Hopes are that the county will be recycling 35% of its waste by 2004/05 and 60% by 2010.

Viridor's contract contains specified standards for recycling with financial penalties if they are not met.

Commenting on the contract, Viridor managing director Mike Hellings said: “The contract reflects our joint aim of recycling lots more of the materials that would otherwise be thrown away.”