Memorandum submitted on behalf of Lancashire
County Council
1. INTRODUCTION
In November 1997 all 15 local authorities in
Lancashire came together to form the Lancashire Municipal Waste
Management Strategy Steering Group. This Group was charged with
the challenge of creating a strategy to establish the policies
that will guide the development of sustainable waste management
in Lancashire for the next 20 years. Following two extensive public
consultation exercises, which included leaflet drops, newspaper
adverts, press releases, public forums, a citizens jury and an
internet website, the Strategy was published in its final form
as "A Greener Strategy for a Greener Future" in April
2001. (Copy attached).
The preparation of the Strategy, its content
and steps taken to date in its implementation all contain elements
of best practice which will be of interest to the Select Committee
in relation to the Committee's terms of reference.
2. ISSUES AND
TARGETS IN
THE STRATEGY
The drivers for the Councils in preparing the
Strategy were the then poor recycling performance, over-reliance
on landfilling, a limited supply of landfill capacity and the
impact of landfill tax on waste management budgets.
In 2000-01, 806,733 tonnes of municipal waste
was produced in Lancashire and this rose to 816,093 tonnes in
2001-02. Traditionally, there has been a high level of dependency
on landfilling of waste in the County due to the legacy of excavated
quarries resulting from the long history of mineral extraction.
At the time of the preparation of the Strategy over 85% of municipal
waste was landfilled.
The key points of the Strategy are:
(a) To reduce waste growth and stabilise
it at 1% pa by 2005.
(b) To have a three-stream waste collection
system for at least 90% of Lancashire households by 2005, covering
garden and kitchen waste, dry recyclables and general waste.
(c) To recycle and compost 40% of all waste
by 2005 and 56% by 2015.
(d) To reduce the total quantity of biodegradable
municipal waste going to landfill to 20% by 2010.
(e) To provide capacity for 325,000 tonnes
of energy from waste incineration by 2010 if the waste minimisation
and recycling targets are not exceeded—the position to be
reviewed in 2005.
(f) To plant two million trees by 2020.
Given the public reaction to energy from waste
developments, the current aim is to exceed Government and the
Strategy's own targets on waste minimisation, recycling and composting
in order to possibly avoid the need for energy from waste plants.
3. PROGRESS WITH
IMPLEMENTATION
Significant progress has been made in implementing
the Strategy since its publication 20 months ago.
All 15 local authorities are committed to the
Strategy, and the Joint Steering Group formed by those authorities
to prepare it, has continued in being to implement it.
Prior to the finalisation of the Strategy a
dedicated Waste Minimisation team was established within Lancashire
County Council in February 2001 to develop, promote and implement
waste reduction and recycling initiatives in partnership with
local authorities and community groups. This was in recognition
of the need to tackle waste growth, which had appeared as a major
impediment to improved performance on recycling and landfill reduction.
Many schemes have been initiated since then and some examples
of these are described in the next section of this evidence.
The proportion of waste landfilled reduced from
85% in 2000-01 to 79% in 2001-02. The amount landfilled actually
fell for the first time. This meant recycling, composting and
reuse rose from 15% to 21%.
Due to success in Lancashire with first round
bids against the £140 million fund established by DEFRA (a
total of £3.84 million was received by the Lancashire Partnership
in the first round of bidding), each of the 14 Districts in Lancashire
had some form of separated collection by the end of March 2002.
Every authority had a paper collection, four had a green collection
and three a dry recyclables collection. 73% of households, ie
450,000, had a paper collection by that date, up from 43% in 1999-2000.
Success to the extent of £5.3 million with second round bids
will secure continued improvement in performance through to 2004.
There are 26 Household Waste Recycling Centres
in Lancashire and about 98% of properties' lie within five miles
of one of these—well within the 90% target set in the COPA
Waste Disposal Plan 1987. Recycling performance at Household Waste
Recycling Centres has improved considerably since the Strategy
was published. The percentage of waste from these centres, which
was recycled or reused, rose from 43.6% in 2000-01 to 53.3% in
2001-02, which already exceeds the Strategy's target of 50% by
2002-03.
When it was finalised two years ago the Strategy
and its proposals were considered innovative. It is considered
that the existence of the Strategy and its progressive policies
have contributed significantly to the achievements in waste reduction
and recycling in Lancashire in the past two years. The Lancashire
Waste Authorities are driving the Strategy and developing and
building on it by exploring new technologies and innovations.
4. OVERCOMING
BARRIERS
In the preparation of the Strategy, the Lancashire
Waste Authorities identified a number of barriers to the successful
improvement of waste management performance and movement up the
waste hierarchy.
One of the major barriers was the split of responsibilities
between Waste Disposal and Waste Collection Authorities, and in
particular, that the primary responsibility for recycling is placed
with the Collection Authority ie District Councils. The barrier
is not just organisational or functional, it also concerns finance
and resources and general issues of Local Government finance.
The major barrier to District Councils increasing
their recycling performance has been financial. Recycling on the
scale required by government targets cannot be self-financing,
even with the payments of recycling credits, and District Councils
with tight, comparatively limited budgets are unable to find the
increased budgets needed to fund higher rates of recycling.
(a) Joint Working
The Strategy recognised that these barriers
needed to be overcome in order to advance recycling and waste
reduction and to meet the European and Best Value Targets set
for the County Council. It proposed that the County Council, with
its greater financial strength, should underwrite some of the
increased financial burden.
The Strategy originally proposed that waste
disposal and collection should be operated on a combined basis
across the County, thus removing both the organisational and financial
barriers ie a fully integrated collection, recycling and disposal
service was proposed. That was the basis on which the Partnership's
joint PFI bid of February 2002 was made.
(b) Supplementary Recycling Credits
A payment of a supplementary recycling credit
payment over and above the statutory recycling credit for District
Councils for "new" green waste composting schemes was
introduced from April 2002 and brought up the level of the payment
from approximately £29 up to £42 per tonne.
Since April 2002 a number of Districts have
introduced new schemes attracting this £42 per tonne payment.
The supplementary recycling credit payments of £500,000 in
2002-03 enabled around 38,000 tonnes of additional green waste
to be composted in Lancashire by the Districts. This will bring
the total projected level of recycling and composting from collections
carried out by both Districts and voluntary groups in 2002-03
to approximately 75,000 tonnes. To meet the BVPIs for 2005-06
of 30% recycling or composting, District or voluntary collections
need to reach in the region of 123,000 tonnes per annum.
This level of collection, combined with a 50%
recycling/composting rate from the County's 26 HWRCs which is
already being achieved, would therefore attain the Statutory Performance
Indicator for 2005-06.
(c) Expansion of "Supplementary
Recycling Credits"
Towards the end of 2002 it became evident that
to further expand recycling and composting schemes throughout
the County the main barrier remained that of available financial
resources. With the County Council's performance under BVPI 82a
and 82b reliant upon the activities of the Districts within Lancashire,
a direct and suitable approach is to extend the "supplementary
recycling credit" scheme to cover all materials collected
by District Councils. This was agreed by the County Council and
the Lancashire Waste Partnership in December 2002. This should
offer considerable benefits to all authorities concerned when
it is introduced in April 2003.
In order that the additional financial resources
are targeted at improving the recycling performance within Lancashire,
eligibility will be conditional on a number of factors. These
include ensuring that additional resources are used to improve
the service and maximise recycling and composting performance
within the District. In addition, administrative conditions will
also apply, including the submission of claims on a monthly basis
to ensure accurate and regular data and budget monitoring. Each
claim for supplementary recycling credit payment will be assessed
on an individual authority basis to ensure an improved performance
is achieved. If the criteria are not met then only the "normal"
statutory recycling credit payment will be paid.
It is proposed that this scheme will supersede
all existing recycling and composting payment schemes including
the statutory recycling credit payments made to Districts and
the non-statutory home composting credit scheme currently being
paid to four Districts (a scheme introduced several years ago
to encourage home composting by District Councils).
The Government's Landfill Tax escalator assumes
a minimum of £1 per tonne increase up to £15 in 2005-06.
It is therefore proposed to introduce this "supplementary
recycling credit scheme" in April 2003 with a credit payment
of £43 (representing the existing payment of £42 per
tonne with an additional £1 per tonne to take account of
the Governments increase in Landfill Tax in April 2003). This
would continue to rise by £1 per year up to 2005-06 when
the rate would be £45 per tonne. This rate exceeds current
predicted landfill costs for this period and would therefore exceed
any statutory "normal rate recycling credits".
(d) Bid for PFI funding
In February 2002, the Lancashire Waste Partnership
mounted a bid to DEFRA for £350 million of PFI credits for
a fully integrated waste management service with full implementation
of all the waste strategy proposals. This involved all capital
facilities of plant equipment, transport and operating costs through
to 2033. At the time it was the largest bid of its kind submitted
to DEFRA. The bid failed for various reasons.
Building on experience gained in mounting the
bid, the three waste disposal authorities of Lancashire, Blackpool
and Blackburn-with-Darwen are now preparing a revised bid for
a total network of waste treatment/recycling facilities to serve
the County. The new revised bid will exclude the collection element
(which in any event, is now being largely enabled through the
successful bid to the £140 million fund) and any final disposal
facility.
If successful, the PFI scheme would provide
a basic network of nine waste facilities servicing the whole of
Lancashire, focusing on composting of separately collected green
waste, and mechanical biological treatment of residual waste.
The network would comprise:
— Four central treatment facilities
(CTFs) offering in-vessel composting of green waste, mechanical
biological treatment of residual waste, and transfer facilities
for separately collected recyclables. Three of these would service
extended catchments covering 3-6 District Council areas each.
— Five transfer stations offering transfer
of residual waste to the CTFs, in-vessel composting of green waste
and transfer facilities for separately collected recyclables.
The Partnership believe that this network, coupled
with separate kerbside collection of dry recyclables and green
waste:
— Could achieve recycling rates of
well over 70%.
— Remove the need for the development
of any EfW plants.
5. EXAMPLES OF
INNOVATIVE SCHEMES
Lancashire County Council has introduced a number
of innovative waste management schemes over the past few years
and some of these are described in this section of the evidence.
(a) Lancashire Home Composting Initiative
With an overall aim to reduce the amount of
waste in Lancashire sent to landfill, in particular the organic
fraction as required by the European Landfill Directive, Lancashire
County Council together with Consultants are implementing a home
composting initiative encouraging Lancashire householders to segregate
their waste at source and compost their organic waste.
The initiative was originally planned for a
period of three years with a target to distribute, free of charge,
60,000 home compost bins throughout Lancashire over a three year
period. Lancashire County Council (LCC) has a commitment to increase
this to 100,000 over the same period with additional support from
Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool Borough Councils.
The success of home composting schemes depends
on developing and retaining the goodwill of householders. Their
long-term commitment to home composting can only be achieved if
they are happy with the equipment, and have confidence in the
composting process itself. To achieve this a range of activities
are being undertaken to support the people who want to compost.
This has consisted of the provision of a dedicated website with
information, a telephone help line, the provision of an initial
educational leaflet about composting (Getting Started) and a quarterly
newsletter (Do Your Bit—Compost It), as well as home composting
road shows and workshops, and training for community volunteers.
Community volunteers are trained through a process of cascade
learning to act as sources of local support to members of the
general public.
— To date over 50,000 compost bins
have been distributed, free of charge.
— In both years to date, the recruitment
of participants in the target areas has been considered successful,
with up-take rates of 41% and 40% in Years one and two respectively.
— At the end of Year one, the up-take
in the County as a whole was 5.9% and at this stage in Year two
it has risen to a total of 8.5%.
— Results from the monitoring questionnaire,
which were sent to participants one year after they received their
bin, showed that 93% of participants were using their bin. Of
the respondents who had used their bin, 61% had already used the
compost they made.
— Recent Waste Analysis has shown that
houses with compost bins have shown an average waste reduction
of 21%.
(b) Green Waste
April 2001 saw the beginning of the new three-year
pilot Green Waste Collection Scheme that has been introduced to
34,000 households in the Boroughs of South Ribble, Chorley and
Preston. The scheme is being co-ordinated by an environmental
body and it aims to collect, and hence divert, 36,000 tonnes of
waste from the residual waste stream over the three year period.
The "green" waste is made up of garden
waste (eg grass, hedge trimmings) and kitchen waste (eg vegetable
peelings, old fruit, teabags) and is collected on a fortnightly
basis. All the households across the three Boroughs involved have
received a wheelie bin for their green waste, along with guidance
on how to use it effectively. The green waste produced from the
scheme will be turned into compost products, rather than it being
delivered to a landfill site with no end use.
The scheme has gained over £1 million in
funding from LWS Lancashire Environmental Fund, and South Ribble,
Chorley and Preston Borough Councils have provided 25% of the
project costs.
Since the introduction of this scheme. Lancashire
has been successful in applying for funding through the DEFRA
Waste Minimisation and Recycling Fund. Much of this money is currently
being spent on expanding these schemes to a significant proportion
of Lancashire households.
(c) Batteries
In March 2000, Lancashire County Council (LCC),
in partnership with LWS Waste Services, G&P Batteries Ltd
and Booths' Supermarket, introduced a countywide recovery scheme
for small household batteries. This was believed to be the first
scheme of its kind. Dedicated collection containers were placed
on all 26 of the County's Household Waste Recycling Centres, six
Booths' Supermarkets, three LCC premises and the Environment Agency
office in Preston.
In the first year of the scheme, G&P collected
approximately 13,000 batteries, and in the second year, this amount
had almost trebled to 36,000 batteries. Approximately one third
of the amount is recycled, with the remainder currently being
either disposed of safely or stored until recycling is a viable
option.
G&P have successfully found a recycling
route for alkaline and zinc carbon batteries as a result of the
Lancashire scheme, which will make it easier for other local authorities
to establish similar schemes.
The collection container has been improved with
all the outdoor containers being replaced by a new specially designed
container. Also, new indoor containers in order to further expand
the scheme to another 25 sites have been purchased.
The initial publicity campaign was centred on
the launch of the scheme, which received coverage in various local
publications as well as in national publications such as ENDS
and Materials Recycling Week.
The experience has been shared with many other
local authorities, even as far away as Northern Ireland.
The next steps involve:
— Expansion of the scheme to new outdoor
and indoor sites, including educational establishments, District
Councils, community centres and other supermarkets.
— Share information/experience to other
local authorities considering similar schemes including new end
markets.
— Information to be used for case study
on the NHHWF website as an example of best practice.
(d) Community Sector
The "Community Solutions" project
is funded by the DEFRA Recycling and Waste Minimisation Fund with
the primary aim being to increase community sector recycling capacity
throughout the County of Lancashire. This is being done through
developing a network of community groups in Lancashire and providing
focused consultancy from the national Community Recycling Services.
Consultancy is designed to meet the needs of local groups.
— Community Solutions has now been
running since September 2002, during which time much of the preliminary
work has been achieved.
— Contact has been made with over 600
community groups, through mail-outs and the Rethink Rubbish conference
held on 19 October 2002.
— This was followed up with application
forms to encourage interested parties to apply for the kind of
support they most require to expand operations, such as funding
and business planning.
— Nearly half the number of consultancy
visits have now been conducted.
— New contacts are being made daily
with organisations keen to start recycling projects—and
once the application form is returned, the groups are visited
and assessed, and advised on the next course of action.
It is envisaged that this work will result:
— in at least two major projects undertaken
by the Community Sector in Lancashire. Tonnages of waste collected
for recycling from these projects will be in the region of 3,000
tonnes a year after two years (based on tonnage of waste collected
by Community Sector groups based in Greater Manchester);
— in better participation rates from
the general public (the Community Sector has been shown to be
better at getting higher participation and set out rates than
Local Authorities are); and
— in increased recycling rates in general—currently
the Community Sector collects around 3,000 tonnes of waste in
Lancashire, this is approximately 2.5% of Lancashire's recycling
rate—this project seeks to double these figures in smaller
groups.
(e) Bi-annual Waste Audit
The County Council funds a three year contract
for bi-annual waste audits which focus in great detail on the
situation in Lancashire.
(f) Waste Awareness Campaign
A great deal of work is currently being undertaken
in Lancashire to provide an infrastructure to allow people across
the County to choose to recycle.
This work is supported by an ongoing awareness
campaign to try and encourage people to make a positive choice
to recycle rather than just bin their rubbish. The current campaign
is based around data from the biannual waste analysis carried
out in Lancashire to identify what is in the typical bin in Lancashire
and what waste streams are priorities.
Over the Christmas 2002 period a campaign of
billboard and bus advertising was developed to encourage people
to recycle their glass bottles and cans over the festive period.
These materials were targeted as they made up 11% of rubbish in
the waste analysis, a percentage that is likely to be higher over
the Christmas/New Year period. The posters had a general message
to encourage people to recycle and was supported by a PR campaign
using a Green Santa to show people where and how they could recycle.
During January 2003 there will be "on bus"
advertising to encourage people to recycle more of their paper,
which comprises 14% of Lancashire's waste. This will be supported
by a PR campaign to show people how to do it.
(g) Maximising Public Participation
In order to maximise public participation, Lancashire
County Council are also working with District Councils to develop
an initiative scheme, based around a monthly draw in each District
for £100, to encourage people to participate in existing
doorstep paper collection schemes. It is proposed that these draws
will initially be carried out in February and March 2003 with
the effectiveness to be reviewed.
March 2003 will see all current funded doorstep
collection of garden waste in place and is also the time of year
when this material increases, making up 30% of the typical bin
in Lancashire. This excludes the future impact of the Round 2
DEFRA funding. As well as the doorstep collection schemes LCC
are keen to encourage people to compost at home by giving away
home compost units free of charge to residents. To promote composting
as an alternative to just binning this type of rubbish March will
see billboard and on bus adverts across Lancashire. Again this
media campaign will be supported by a PR campaign.
All this awareness raising work will be supported
by monitoring of information such as tonnages collected of materials,
participation rates and general awareness of issues.
6. SUCCESS
The success of the Partnership in securing finance
from the National Waste Minimisation and Recycling Fund (the DEFRA
£140 million fund) is outstanding. In the 2002-03 round six
projects totalling £3.8 million were successful and in 2003-04
eight projects totalling £5.3 million were successful.
These represent the best performance in the
North West, which, in turn, has been the most successful Region
in the country.
This success is attributable, amongst other
things, to the strength of the Partnership, the comprehensive
nature of the Strategy and to the confidence which the District
Councils have in their ability to deliver the schemes and maintain
them, which stems from the enhanced recycling credits (discussed
above).
7. THE WAY
FORWARD
The implementation of the Waste Management Strategy
in Lancashire requires the development of a number of different
types of facility: central waste treatment facilities, transfer
stations, Materials Recycling Facilities (MRFs), green waste composters
etc. The County Council has found that waste management contractors
are very concerned about the degree of risk they take in providing
and operating these facilities on behalf of the Authority. Thus,
the County Council is seeking to reduce the level of risk transferred
to contractors by itself identifying the sites, securing long-term
interest in them and obtaining the necessary planning permissions.
This may be a practice which would commend itself to other Waste
Disposal Authorities faced with delays owing to concerns within
the private sector about providing facilities for dealing with
waste. The Strategy and its plan for the implementation give a
clear context in which applications for facilities can be set.
On this basis, the process in Lancashire has been to divide the
County into nine waste catchment areas, forecast the levels and
types of waste to be treated and thereby determine the nature
of the facility to be provided in each catchment. This in turn
enables the size of each site to be decided and the general character
and nature of the areas to be searched. A number of options are
being identified for each catchment and planning studies undertaken
to find which represents BPEO for the development of the relevant
facility. This ensures the sites accord with the planning policies
for the area and, therefore, that there will be a strong probability
that planning permission will be forthcoming.
The County Council has already identified a
site for a Central Waste Treatment Facility in Leyland and a planning
application was submitted at the beginning of January 2003. A
public exhibition to show the proposals to local residents, local
politicians and businesses, prior to the formal application process
taking place, was held in November 2002. The scheme is for a Waste
Technology Park which would be the first of a new generation of
integrated waste management facilities providing for recycling,
composting, reclamation and reuse of materials. If permitted,
the development would encompass an aerobic digestion plant, a
green garden waste in-vessel composting plant, a waste transfer
station and a MRF. It would incorporate the very latest in technology,
particularly in the combination of composting and mechanical biological
treatment. All operations would take place within buildings and
no waste would be handled or kept outside. Overall, when fully
completed, the Waste Technology Park would be capable of handling
up to 300,000 tonnes of waste per annum from Preston, Chorley,
South Ribble, West Lancashire and part of Fylde Districts. It
has an existing rail siding nearby. It would incorporate a site
office, welfare facilities and a visitor/education centre.
All the build-up to the provision of the Waste
Technology Park will have been by the County Council. The private
sector will only come into the process at the time of the construction
and operation of the facilities.
Use of the latest technology and the process
being followed by the County Council in ensuring it can be provided
in the right places within a reasonable timescale is a major factor
in achieving 75% recovery of waste without resorting to energy
from waste plants.
8. CONCLUSIONS
This evidence has sought to show Lancashire's
approach to the waste problem and why it may be put forward as
an example of best practice which could with advantage be followed
by other Waste Authorities. If early progress is to be taken as
a sign for the longer term, it does seem as if a combination of
waste minimisation, reuse, recycling, composting and minimal landfill
could between them solve the problem of dealing with the County's
waste arising during the next 20 years without recourse to large-scale
Energy-from-Waste developments.
Lancashire County Council
6 January 2003
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