The council says it recycles about half of Warwickshire’s household waste but still manages around 130,000 tonnes of residual material a year.
Approximately 100,000 tonnes of this waste is sent to energy from waste (EfW) facilities, the council says, while the remaining 30,000 tonnes are disposed of via landfill.
The council has two contracts for landfill disposal, one of which is with Veolia’s Ling Hall site near Rugby and expires in March 2023.
The council says it needs to secure a treatment or disposal service for the residual waste currently disposed of under the expiring deal, which comes predominantly from the east of Warwickshire.
The “best value-for-money solution” is likely come through tendering for a service, the council says, as it does not own a site for the treatment or disposal of the waste itself.
Councillor Heather Timms, Warwickshire’s portfolio holder for environment, climate and culture, said: “Although our target is to only send less than 10% of Warwickshire’s household waste to landfill, this method of disposal is hugely costly to taxpayers and equally costly to our environment.
“The good news is that there are a range of things that all our residents can do to reduce the amount of residual waste that is produced and the amount of this that is disposed of in landfill.”
Contract
Warwickshire’s procurement process will not specify the treatment or disposal method and will allow tenderers to submit their “best environmental solution”.
[Landfill] is hugely costly to taxpayers and equally costly to our environment
– Councillor Heather Timms, Warwickshire’s portfolio holder for environment, climate and culture
According to a report which went before the council last week (10 November), the contract will have a “medium-term” duration with an initial term of three years and a further extension period not exceeding 24 months.
The contract value is estimated to be in the region of £5,500,000 over the maximum five years of the contract, the report says.
The council estimates that approximately 10,000 tonnes per annum could be disposed of under the new contract, but there will be no minimum tonnage guarantee.
The council’s proposed timetable is to go to tender in December so the new contract can begin on 1 April 2023.
Warwickshire
Representing an estimated population of nearly 570,000, Warwickshire had a household waste recycling rate of 49.5% in the 2020/21 financial year.
The council has two EfW contracts to manage the county’s residual waste, one with Veolia’s W2R facility in Staffordshire and another with the Coventry and Solihull Waste Disposal Company (CSWDC) plant in Coventry.
Warwickshire also has a “long-term” contract with the FCC Environment to use the Bubbenhall Landfill site, located on the border of the Stratford-on-Avon district and the Rugby borough.
The two EfW contracts are meeting their maximum tonnages and the Bubbenhall contract is meeting its minimum tonnage, the report says.
“If no contract was procured the residual waste would be disposed of under existing contracts and it is likely that this would be more expensive based on the current and anticipated contract pricing,” the report reads.
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