Briefing Paper Number 8

 

The Role of the Waste Disposal Authorities and the Household Waste Recycling Centre Network

 

Summary

Hampshire County Council along with Portsmouth City Council and Southampton City Council are statutory Waste Disposal Authorities (WDAs) and this duty extends to the disposal of household waste. In Hampshire, the WDAs have joined with the District Councils, who are responsible for waste collection, in a partnership known as Project Integra (PI). As part of the delivery mechanism, the WDAs have entered into a long term contract with a private sector partner, Hampshire Waste Services (HWS), to provide and operate a network of processing infrastructure and associated transport. 

PI had an initial target of achieving 40% recycling of household waste and expects to achieve that level within the next few years. However PI believes that the 40% target can be considerably exceeded, including energy recovery as well as recycling, and is working towards reducing landfill levels to below 15%. In order to achieve this it will also be necessary to look beyond the household waste stream, to commercial, industrial, and other wastes. This will enable PI to take advantage of the economies of scale of dealing with a larger waste stream, where the key to processing and disposal is material type, not the origin of the material. 

This briefing note sets out the legal obligations the WDAs have with regard to the disposal of household rubbish, including operation of the Household Waste Recycling Centre’s (HWRCs), and how we work together within Project Integra to help deliver an integrated household waste management system in Hampshire.

 

 

Introduction and Legislative Background

We have to make arrangements for dealing with the household rubbish arising in Hampshire. In recent years, this task has presented us with a major challenge because the historic means of waste disposal, landfill sites, are becoming exhausted and we need to seek more environmentally acceptable ways in which to dispose of waste. We  need to avoid waste and recycle as much as possible in order to conserve our natural resources and make our industrial processes more sustainable in the longer term. 

Prior to the early 1990’s, the County Council was responsible for disposing of household rubbish and was able to provide and operate facilities such as recycling centres, incinerators and landfill sites to do this task. The situation changed with the introduction of the Environmental Protection Act (EPA)in 1990. The EPA requires us to undertake a number of ‘statutory duties’, including the following;

  ·        To arrange for the disposal of controlled waste collected in the area by Waste Collection Authorities (WCAs);

·        To direct WCAs to transport waste to the appropriate  delivery or processing facilities;

·        To arrange for places to be provided for residents to dispose of their household waste, and for that waste to be disposed. (We meet this requirement through the network of HWRCs. These sites must be provided free of charge, be reasonably accessible to local residents and be available at reasonable times including at least one period on a Saturday or Sunday).

·        To make payments based on the net savings in disposal cost to WCAs who recycle waste  rather than deliver it for disposal. (Within Project Integra, WCAs forgo these payment in lieu of having recycling infrastructure provided and made available for their collections through the waste disposal contract);

·        To store and dispose of abandoned vehicles delivered by WCAs.

 

In addition, we have several ‘discretionary powers’,  including those to;

·        Object to a WCA collecting industrial waste or making separate arrangements for recycling where joint arrangements already exist;

·        Own plant and equipment and make this available to disposal contractors to enable them to transport waste,  and treat it prior to disposal;

·        Hold land and make this available to waste disposal contractors for the purpose of enabling them to treat, keep or dispose of waste.

·        Restrict the availability of HWRCs to specific types of waste;

·        Arrange for the disposal of  household waste from outside the area or of other controlled waste at HWRCs and levy charges;

·        Make arrangements with waste disposal contractors for them to recycle or provide heat and electricity from waste for which we have responsibility;

·        Make payments to third parties (such as charities) who collect waste for recycling where the waste would otherwise be delivered for disposal;

·        Promote recycling in the home and provide information to Hampshire residents about the services provided by the authorities and their contractors and other local charitable or voluntary organisations to recycle or deal with their waste once it leaves their doorstep

 

 

In order to fulfil these duties in Hampshire, we have developed two key mechanisms;

·        The Project Integra partnership, a unique partnership nationally, which includes all the local authorities in the County, including the Unitary Authorities of Portsmouth and Southampton, the private sector waste disposal contractor and the public.

·        A long term (25+ years) contract with Hampshire Waste Services (HWS), a private contractor, to deliver most of the transport, recycling and disposal functions. We also have shorter term contracts in place with HWS and Hopkins Recycling to mange and run the HWRC network across the County.

 

 

The Project Integra Partnership

 The PI partnership delivers an integrated waste management system in Hampshire. It brings together all the waste collection and disposal authorities and the main waste disposal contractor into one legally constituted body which sets policy and standards for waste management in Hampshire and is a key player in the Material Resources Strategy. More information on the background and history of PI, is included in Briefing Paper number 7: “Project Integra – a Background and History”.

It is nevertheless useful to look here at the PI strategy in the context of the WDA role and how it might change through the MRS. The PI strategy was originally developed in the early 1990’s. Public consultation told us that we need to develop an integrated waste management strategy, based on the following waste hierarchy;

·        Reduce or avoid waste  - initial targets sought to stabilise waste at 1995 levels, but these have not been achieved and a new approach is now needed, through the development of the MRS. This must recognise the changes in the way we live, such as living in smaller households, but must seek to influence lifestyles to build in the concept of being smarter about how we use resources.

·        Recycle and Reuse as much as possible – generally this is achieved through kerbside collections and drop off sites operated by District Councils, and the HWRCs operated by the WDAs. PI has a good record of achievement in recycling and reuse. The target of recycling 25% by 2001 has already been met and the 40% target is achievable by 2006.

·        Recovery of energy – The three new energy recovery incinerators are being built in the County to high environmental standards set at the European level and monitored by the Environment Agency. They will recover energy from residual waste and produce about 30 megawatts of electricity. Metal will be taken out and reused and the furnace ash will be used in road construction. Only a small proportion of the residue ash, about 5%, will need to be landfilled. Their capacity is set at about 75% of the projected residual waste in Hampshire to help ensure that waste hierarchy if followed.

·        Biological Treatment – This treatment is a possibility for PI, principally to deal with organic wastes such as food waste, which can comprise up to 15% of the total household waste. It is a modular process which can be expanded as demand increases and it can be used to deal with commercial as well household organic waste. Legislative changes have, to date, delayed development of biological treatment plants, but operating requirements are now clarified.

·        Landfill  - the final rung of the hierarchy, landfill will accommodate direct tipping, residues from the recycling process, biological treatment processes and the incinerators. It is expected to deal with no more than 15%  of the waste stream.

 

The strategy was approved in 1995 and was updated in 2002, by the PI Management Board, in respect of the recycling infrastructure needed to meet higher recycling targets set by the Government in the National Waste Strategy 2000 and the subsequent advice on preparing new waste strategies.

The Material Resources Strategy (MRS) will form the basis of a new strategy to cover the next decade, and will develop the process beyond the collection and disposal of household waste, to consider wider resource issues.

 

 

The Contract with Hampshire Waste Services

The process of constructing and operating the infrastructure needed to process household waste in Hampshire is complex and expensive. We have therefore chosen to employ a private contractor to do this for us. The contract was let in 1995 to Hampshire Waste Services (HWS), who won the contract in competition with other waste management contractors. The contract requires HWS to construct and operate all the infrastructure necessary to process household waste in line with the strategy described above. HWS have provided the funding for this infrastructure and we are now repaying the cost over a 25 year term through payments on each tonne of material which they transport, process or dispose.

The contract is a unique one which focuses on the delivery of a complete service, rather than for building specific facilities (although these are needed in order to provide the service).

The key principles of the waste disposal contract are;

·        Running and maintaining the infrastructure;

·        Transferring waste and recyclables from the network of transfer stations to the Materials Recovery Facilities (MRF), the Energy Recovery Facilities (ERF), the Composting Sites or to Landfill;

·        Transferring waste and recyclables from the HWRC network to MRF, ERF  composting site and to landfill;

·        Liaison with the local authorities through Project Integra;

·        Education awareness and development work;

·        Management of both the current and some of the closed landfill sites.

 

The contract is presently valued at some £45 million per annum, equivalent to about £50 per tonne of waste disposed. Whilst these costs are relatively high when compared with some other WDAs, this does reflect that fact that Hampshire is well advanced with the construction of the infrastructure needed to deal with its household waste over the next decade or so. This includes;

 

            9  Transfer Stations (the point to which WCAs deliver collected waste);

            2  Material Recovery Facilities (MRF) (one to be completed autumn 2004);

            3  Central Composting Sites;

            3  Energy Recovery Incinerators (two to be completed early in 2005);

            3  Landfill sites.

 

Performance of the contact is closely monitored and performance figures are reported quarterly to the PI Management Board. The contract helps PI to deal with some 850,000 tonnes of household waste annually, and currently to recycle over 25% of that total. Unless waste growth is reduced below the current rate of 2-3% a year, the above infrastructure will need to be doubled over the next 25 years to cope with it.

 

 

 

The Household Waste Recycling Centre Network

 

The Network

We are responsible under the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) 1990 for providing “places …at which persons resident in [the] area may deposit their household waste”

In order to achieve this, 26 household waste recycling centres are provided around Hampshire. The network enables us to serve about 85% of Hampshire’s population within about five miles of their home and 97% within eight miles. Nine of the sites currently take in Hazardous Household Waste and this will be increased to eleven in 2004. Many of the sites are too small to meet current demand and a number have only a temporary planning permission. An extensive programme of replacement and refurbishment is underway, with new sites opened recently at Segensworth, Alton and New Alresford. A further eight sites are expected to be improved or relocated in the next three to five years including those at Winchester, Hayling Island, Romsey, and Hartley Wintney.

The HWRC service plays a significant role in the overall achievement of high recycling in the county. In 2002/03, they dealt with a total of over 240,000 tonnes of materials, and recycled about half of that total (including composting of green garden waste). In turn, this makes up about half of the all recycling within PI. It complements the kerbside waste collection services provided by the District Councils and is particularly popular for the deposit of green garden waste, bulky household goods such as furniture and electrical appliances, hazardous waste and small amounts of building materials. The revenue cost of this service is around £6 million per annum, or around £30 per tonne of material handled, including disposal and processing costs. 

 

Management Contracts

The HWRC network within Hampshire is managed under five contract areas which are currently managed by two contractors; Hampshire Waste Services and Hopkins Recycling Ltd.  In addition to dealing with waste collected from the District Councils, Hampshire Waste Services are also responsible for collecting and disposing of waste from the HWRC network.  The current contracts provide an incentive to the contractor to increase recycling at their sites and they incorporate some flexibility to accommodate developments over the contract period which may arise from changes in policy or legislative. 

In accordance with the EPA, and with the waste management licences issued by the Environment Agency for each site, the network does not provide for the disposal of commercial or industrial waste.  In general, this must be arranged via a private contract between a business and private waste disposal company.  We are aware of the problems for smaller businesses and contractors, such as those in the construction or garden maintenance businesses. These businesses often have insufficient material to meet minimum contract requirements at commercial sites, or the disposal rates are uneconomic. This is an issue which needs to be addressed through the MRS and we are introducing a pilot scheme at Alton and Segensworth HWRCs under which small businesses can take their waste for a set fee. 

 

HWRC Service Review

In June 2002 we commenced a review of the HWRC Service, which will be incorporated into the MRS. The objectives of the review were to:

·        Establish  a strategy for the service;

·        Use the strategy as a basis for renewing management contracts;

·        Enable the service to help meet overall recycling performance targets;

·        Establish the role of the service in the wider context of HNRI;

·        Ensure best performance of the property assets in delivering the service.

 

The review was based on an extensive study of customer use and views about the HWRC service. It showed that 85% of residents had used the service in the last two years and about 95% claimed they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the service. The main complaints related to delays and queuing, unhelpful staff and difficulty using the skips. We are addressing these concerns by extending and improving the network as resources permit, providing more training for staff  to meet customer needs and to improving access within the sites.

We are also introducing a new service plan to focus the operation of sites on customer services including a clearly identified complaints procedure, with contact details etc. and better information feedback to customers about recycling.

The impact of this will be measured via customer feedback; monitoring of recycling and resale figures and carrying out site audits.      

 

Conclusion

The Material Resources Strategy seeks to achieve recycling and resource management objectives which go beyond what the local authorities can achieve within their current powers on their own. In order to deliver the vision we shall need to draw together the function of the waste collection and disposal authorities, through the Project Integra partnership, and the Hampshire Natural Resources Initiative (HNRI) which is addressing the issues of commercial and other wastes. These organisations need to work together to build the physical and organisational infrastructure capable of meeting the wider recycling needs of the County. As well as organisational change, the approach will require physical change. Whilst the need for landfill sites will decrease under it, we shall need many more processing sites. These will range from MRFs similar to the one already operating in Portsmouth, to facilities for the reprocessing of construction and demolition waste, electronic equipment de-manufacturing, furniture recycling and plastic and glass reprocessing. The land use planning policies will need to adapt to cope with this change.

The HWRCs in Hampshire will also have a key role to play in this process. Their function in terms of domestic recycling achievement is already established and it will become more crucial as we pursue more stretching municipal waste targets. Beyond this, recycling centres will need to be made more available for the commercial sector to recycle their waste materials. They will also need to located adjacent to, or develop into all purpose resource parks, where the collection activity can go hand in hand with the reprocessing function. This will help bring local employment, add to the local economy, save on transport costs and reduce the environmental impact of transport.