In the debate at Cabinet I put
forward the amendment to continue with weekly collections, I would like to
explain why I did this and what my thinking is behind the decisions that we
have made on your behalf.
Arun and six other District
Councils in West Sussex are the Collection authorities and West Sussex County
Council is the Waste Authority. One of
the biggest challenges facing us is the EU rules on minimum recycling rates, We
all have to be up to 50% recycling by 2020, if we don't we face fines from the
EU.
Currently the weekly bin
collection are taken to land fill, whereas the fortnightly Recycling bins
contents are taken to the MRF at Ford, where it is separated and processed.
The recycling once sorted is sold
to various manufacturers and Ford has a good reputation for the quality of its
recyclables, currently Arun gets a £850k rebate for the sale of these.
Over the next few months the new
MBT ( Mechanical Biological Treatment) plant at Horsham will start taking the
weekly residual waste that currently goes to Land Fill and this will be
processed at the new plant, the food waste will go to an anaerobic digester to
power the plant and the remnants of this will go to create fertiliser, Metals
will be extracted for recycling and non recyclable plastic will be processed
into pellets for incinerators generating electricity from waste. Any left over waste will go to landfill.
Within the tendering process of
the new Arun cleansing contract there is an option to switch to a weekly food
waste collection and a fortnightly residual waste, whilst also continuing with
fortnightly recycling collection. This
option will not be possible for a number of years because West Sussex County
Council can't yet receive food waste which will be counted toward our recycling
target which is critical to avoid the EU
fines.
So whilst I support continuing
the weekly collection currently, there is an option to save money by
introducing weekly food waste collections and reduce the residual waste to
fortnightly, Arun needs to make millions in savings in the next few years, If
we can hit the 50% target on recycling and also continue a weekly collection of
sorts by collecting food waste, collecting residual and recycling on a
fortnightly basis as well as saving money then we will have pulled off a tricky
balancing act
Until Next Month, Paul Dendle is Arundel & Walberton Ward
Member as well as Cabinet member for Leisure & Amenities on Arun DC. Tel. no: 07725369841 email cllr.paul.dendle@arun.gov.uk
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