The draft strategy, published last week, covers Surrey county council and its eleven constituent boroughs and districts. The Surrey Local Government Association (SLGA) has invited residents to comment on the options laid out in the county's waste strategy.
The document lays out integrated options for the future management of the county's waste. The six options all use material recycling facilities to sort collected recyclables and most include composting facilities or mechanical-biological or biological-mechanical treatment plants as well as thermal treatment or anaerobic digestion with energy recovery.
The SLGA vice chair, county councillor Christine Stevens, said: “The boroughs and district councils and the county council have worked together to find solutions and ways forward. It is now vital that we get the views of the Surrey public and involve them. People need to understand just how important this is. We simply cannot go on as we are. We must learn to reduce the waste we generate, and recycle and re-use more, we must find ways of disposing of the waste that is left.”
Recent proposals to build energy from waste facilities in the county have met obstacles in the planning stages. Surrey Waste Management, a subsidiary of SITA UK, had submitted an application to build an energy-from-waste plant in Capel to treat the waste from its 25-year treatment and disposal contract with Surrey county council. The company withdrew its application in July this year in order for the council to review its waste management contract (see letsrecycle.com story).
A separate application by Thames Waste for a 225,000 per annum incinerator for Guildford was turned down by the county council in October, 2001 and the company decided not to appeal the decision. Both SITA UK's application for the facility in Capel and Thames Waste's Guildford application met with strong local opposition.
Investment
The partnership councils have admitted that to meet legislation such as the European Landfill Directive heavy investment is needed in infrastructure and facilities. The draft says: “Based on net present values, and projected growth forecasts in waste arisings, by 2020 Surrey could be required to invest a total of between 220 million and 297 million in new waste treatment infrastructure, requiring up to between five to 19 and 10 to 33 facilities.”
SLGA chairman, councillor Geoff Woodger said: “Faced with an emerging crisis of so much more waste to be collected and fewer disposal options, the SLGA saw the urgent need to agree a joint approach to waste management in Surrey.”
He added: “We need to find the right way forward – but there are no easy solutions and no easy options. It falls to us as elected representatives to take these difficult decisions but we need the views of our residents to help us do that. We hope as many people as possible will respond.”
The deadline for responses to the consultation is November 28, 2003. The public's views will be reviewed and taken into account before the final strategy for Surrey is published next year.
The consultation draft of Surrey's integrated waste management strategy is available online.
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