Recycle for Gloucestershire

The story so far

Currently, we recycle 42 per cent of our household waste, with the remainder going to landfill sites across Gloucestershire.

We are currently charged £48 by the government in tax for every tonne of waste we put into landfill. This is on top of what we are charged by the landfill owners to use their sites. This year the council expects to pay approximately £7.7 million in landfill tax alone. Landfill tax increases every year, and next year it will be £56 per tonne.

We know landfill also damages the environment and yet we are paying huge sums for the privilege. As our waste decomposes it releases greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change, including methane which is 21 times more harmful than carbon dioxide.

We must find an alternative for both environmental and financial reasons.

Finding a better way to deal with real rubbish is an objective set-out in the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy, which has been signed-up to by the county council and all six district councils. Click here for more information on the strategy.

Alternatives to landfill

There are several different technologies available as alternatives to landfill.

The residual waste project is managing a procurement process that involves asking the waste industry to come forward with its suggestions. See Procurement & funding for more information.

Four bidders are being asked to work-up detailed solutions based on previous outline proposals they have submitted. The core technologies included in the bids are mechanical biological treatment (MBT) and incineration. More information on these technologies can be found in the Defra booklets available on the Download page.

Location

Whatever method is ultimately chosen to deal with our real rubbish, we will need somewhere to put it.

Javelin Park was originally identified in the Gloucestershire Waste Local Plan as a suitable site for waste management. This was supported by an independent report on potential sites in the county.

The waste industry was free to use Javelin Park as part of any proposals or suggest other sites. All of the solutions being considered make some use of Javelin Park, and in some cases final processing takes place outside of the county. We cannot say for certain if Javelin Park will be used until we have awarded the contract in 2011. Any new facilities will also need planning permission and environmental permits, which will involve further consultation.

The procurement process

The council is inviting the private sector to put forward solutions as to how we deal with our real rubbish in Gloucestershire based on our needs – or the technical term: an output specification. This means that we explain to the market what we need any technology to do, rather than specify the actual technology. Suggestions will be assessed on evaluation criteria that will include environmental issues, social issues, sustainability, flexibility, deliverability and cost.

Who will pay for all this?
Finding an alternative to landfill is expensive – hundreds of millions of pounds to get a solution up and running. Yet, even if we ignore our environmental responsibility to help reduce greenhouse gases, it is still more cost effective to find another solution than carrying-on as we are.

Private Funding Initiative (PFI)

Central government realise that most councils struggle on their existing budgets, and have provided access to grants through a scheme called private funding initiative (PFI), which is managed by Defra. Councils must make their case for funding and have to go through a rigorous process.

The council has been awarded £92 million of PFI credits to help develop new infrastructure to treat Gloucestershire's remaining real rubbish.

In April 2008, Gloucestershire County Council Cabinet approved the submission of an outline business case to central government (Defra) to officially begin the PFI application process. The cabinet also reiterated the council’s commitment to considering more than one facility on different sites and several technologies. The timing page of this website illustrates the process the council is following, up to any new method being in operation by 2015.

The outline business case had to include a reference project. Defra requires that councils applying for PFI to support waste projects select a reference waste technology that can be used as an example. The reference project must include technical and financial information specific to the project, such as the amount of waste to be disposed of and the budget available from the council. As part of our reference project, we have to take into account all of the targets set in the JMWMS, such as Gloucestershire obtaining its 60 per cent recycling and composting target by 2020.

The reference project in our outline business case is based on an energy from waste (EfW) facility that may deliver combined heat and power.

It should be stressed that the reference project does not represent the county council’s preferred solution. The council will be asking the private sector to come forward with suggestions based on our needs. In a similar way to selecting a new car, you might know you want it to have four doors, be economical to run, have good safety record, and space for the family, but you have an open mind to the model you may end up with.

The Cabinet confirmed this at a meeting in April 2008 to approve the submission of the outline business case as part of our application for private finance initiative to central government. It stated: “This Cabinet reiterates its commitment to investigating a dispersed solution on a range of sites and to investigate the full range of technologies as identified in the Cabinet Report of November 2007". In addition, Full Council also agreed in May 2008 that: "GCC will not commit to the technology of a single site incinerator (Javelin Park/Hunts Grove site) without, investigating all of the options and considering the full range of available technologies, taking into account of the environmental as well as financial impact of each".

Community forums

People living or working near the Javelin Park site are invited to take part in a series of community forums being organised by the county council.

The forums will have the opportunity to discuss the alternatives to landfill and discuss any specific issues or concerns people might have.

If you’re interested in joining a community forum please email realrubbish@gloucestershire.gov.uk or telephone 01452 42 7248.

Click here to find out more about previous consultation.