The discussions come because food waste disposal comes under the county council’s remit, as it has responsibility for arranging for the disposal of “controlled waste” collected by the district and borough councils in its area.
While no borough or district councils in West Sussex currently offer a separate food waste collection service, the county council says it has sponsored trials in Arun and Mid Sussex, the latter to begin in mid-2022.
Under the Resources and Waste Strategy, all local authorities in England are to be expected to offer free separate food waste collections, but much remains unclear about the practicalities (see letsrecycle.com story).
West Sussex says there is “general consensus” among the district and borough councils in the county that they cannot commit to separate food waste collections until the government has set out an ‘implement by’ date and clarified the extent of new burdens funding available to support roll-out and ongoing delivery.
Proposals
West Sussex says Biffa’s 310,000 tonnes per year capacity mechanical biological treatment (MBT) facility at Brookhurst Wood, near Warnham, could be converted to process food waste separately, providing what a council report describes as a “cost effective solution”.
We see it as important to line up a solution to remove one uncertainty from the equation
The report says the conversion would take 12 months and have an estimated capital cost of just under £7.3 million.
Steve Read, director of environment and public protection at West Sussex, told letsrecycle.com: “The proposals come against the backdrop of continuing uncertainty around the timetable and new burdens support for implementation of the new duty to collect food waste separately by our district and borough partners, but we see it as important to line up a solution to remove one uncertainty from the equation.”
The proposals are expected to be recommended for approval by the council’s cabinet on 15 March.
Biffa and Viridor
Waste management firm Biffa began a £1 billion, 25-year household waste disposal contract with West Sussex county council in 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story). The contract covered the disposal of residual waste via an MBT facility and landfill and saw the construction of the Brookhurst Wood facility.
At the same time, Viridor secured the county’s contract to sort recyclables, although it had originally been in first place for the disposal contract too. Now, having acquired Viridor’s recycling division, Biffa has all the West Sussex work.
A single contractor with capacity to handle food waste is what the county originally expected – the Brookhurst Wood site is thought to have been originally configured with one of its anaerobic digestion (AD) tanks having a shut-off valve so that it could be used to make a digestate from food waste which could go to agriculture.
Today, the MBT organic residues produce a compost-like output which can only go to land restoration; the MBT as currently configured cannot process food waste separately, according to the county council report.
RDF
In the county’s residual waste stream, food waste constitutes around 40% of it by weight. The organic fraction of the residual waste is biologically treated through the AD plant to generate electricity on site. The waste is sent as refuse derived fuel (RDF) to Holland and Germany.
West Sussex has proposed varying its contract with Biffa to enable the acceptance and processing of source-separated food waste and the continued production and offtake of RDF.
Having undertaken a market consultation exercise, West Sussex has also proposed starting procurement for a new RDF offtake contract which would last until 2035, with a possible extension until 2040.
The council’s current RDF contract ends in March 2023.
West Sussex
West Sussex county council is the authority governing the non-metropolitan county of West Sussex.
The county contains seven district and borough councils: Adur district council, Arun district council, Chichester district council, Crawley borough council, Horsham district council, and Mid Sussex district council.
Representing an estimated population of nearly 868,000, West Sussex county council had a household waste recycling rate of 53.1% in the 2020/21 financial year.
Alongside the proposals relating to food waste, the committee meeting on 2 March will also discuss retaining the household waste recycling centre (HWRC) booking system which has been in place at six sites across West Sussex since April 2021.
The council will also look at the possibility of extending the system to other HWRCs in the county in the future.
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