HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

WASTE MANAGEMENT CABINET PANEL

TUESDAY 14 APRIL 2009 AT 2.00 P.M.

WASTE MANAGEMENT SPATIAL STRATEGY

Report of the Director of Environment
Author:Ray GreenallTel: 01992 556160
Executive Member: Derrick Ashley, Planning, External Relations and Waste

1. Purpose of report

1.2To provide the Panel with an introduction to the current and future service needs of the County Council as Waste Disposal Authority and to seek their views on the approach being developed to identify the Waste Disposal Authority’s future requirementsin relation to the emerging Waste Development Framework.

2. Summary

2.1The County Council as Waste Planning Authority (WPA) is developing its Waste Development Framework (WDF), which will include a Core Strategy and Site Allocations Documents. This work is ongoing with a consultation planned for September and October 2009, with consideration by the County Council in March 2010 followed by submission to GoEast in July 2010. There will follow a period of examination by central government which will produce a modified policy document for County Council approval in September/October 2011. This document will be the fundamental policy document for all waste management activities.

2.2Therefore, there is a significant opportunity for the WDA to articulate its

long term requirements (up to 2021) for the provision of services that

include:

  • Residual waste treatment and associated infrastructure
  • Organic waste treatment
  • Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs)

2.3These requirements will expressed in the form of a service strategy, which will be submitted to the Waste Planning Authority for consideration and inclusion within the WDF. This service strategy will cover the three main areas above and provide comprehensive information with empirical evidence on waste volumes, waste composition, transport and transfer arrangements, thecatchments for each type of facility and identification ofareas of search based on robust defendable evidence. All the above can draw upon the agreed principles and policiesof the Hertfordshire Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy 2007 and the supporting waste procurement programme.

2.4Following this meeting of the Panel work will be developed and it is anticipated that the resulting strategywill be submitted as part of the WDF process.

3. Recommendation

3.1That the Panel notes and comments on the overall approach and timetable for production of a service strategy for the Waste Disposal Authority.

4. Background

4.1Hertfordshire County Council, as the Waste Disposal Authority (WDA), has therequirement:

  • To manage waste in a sustainable way
  • To have in place adequate facilities
  • to be able to divert as much waste as is practical from being disposed of in landfill sites,
  • to maximisethe recycling, re-use and composting of the municipal waste managed by the eleven councils that make up the Hertfordshire Waste Partnership (HWP).

4.2In line with European Directives and national policies the strategic objectivesof the WDA, as set out in the Hertfordshire Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy 2007, are to achieve:

  • A household recycling and composting rate of at least 50% by 2012.
  • A residual household waste production of 285 kilograms per head by 2012.
  • Compliance with the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS) in each of its target years up until and including 2019/20.

4.3To achieve these targets and any future revisions, the WDA will need to maintain the suitability and sufficiency of its network of waste management facilities. In order to do this, the WDA needs to understand the capability of its existing network as well as having a clear vision of what it will require in the future if it is to maintain and build upon its current successes.

4.4The purpose of the proposed service strategy is to provide a longer term context for the management of this change and to achieve continuing service improvements.

5. Current performance

5.1Current projections indicate that almost 556,000tonnes of municipal waste will have been managed in Hertfordshire in 2008/09 with around 522,000 tonnes collected from households. The waste profile shows:

  • 556,000 tonnes of municipal waste, of which
  • 229,000 tonnes of household waste recycled and composted (44%)
  • 36,800 tonnes were sent for energy recovery
  • 290,000 tonnes were sent to landfill
  • 33,300 tonnes from commercial and other non-household sources
  • The County Council (as WDA) received around 86,000tonnes of waste at its nineteen household waste recycling centres (HWRCs), of which more than 59% was sent for recycling or composting.
  • The County Council sent approximately 178,000tonnes of biodegradable municipal waste to landfill, using about 73%of its LATS allowances for the year.
  • Residual waste was disposed of under contract at nine different sites. Seven of these were landfill sites and two were Energy from Waste (EfW) facilities. Two of the landfill sites are located within Hertfordshire, the remaining facilities are situated outside of the county in Bedfordshire,Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex and North London.

5.2As of 2008/09, the County Council has three contracts for the ‘in-vessel’ composting of green garden waste, to which cardboard and kitchen waste can be added. The development of a further facility, anticipated to be operational in late 2009, will enable collection services for the collection of mixed organic waste to be rolled out across all of Hertfordshire.

5.3Hertfordshire's collected municipal waste has fallen over the last year by over 13,000 tonnes whilst recycling and composting rates have risen from 38% to almost 44% in the last 12 months. Much of this improved performance is the result of significant investment by the Hertfordshire Waste Partnership in kerbside recycling and composting collections, physical improvements to HWRCs along with changes to their management plus the opening of In-Vessel Composting facilities.

For this improvement to be maintained a long term service strategy

needs to be developed and implemented.

6.Meeting Future Requirements

6.1Waste Management challenges are continually changing driven by new legislation, fiscal measures, personal consumption patterns and household growth. This a complex picture and requires a strategic approach in which to develop operational solutions. Many of these solutions require sites in appropriate locations to meet the needs of the waste collection authorities and to provide the WDA with cost effective solutions.

6.2The Waste Development Framework provides the town planning context for the appropriate siting of future facilities. The purpose of the proposed WDA strategy is to articulate future service needs within specific areas of search in a way that can be reflected in the Core Strategy and the Sites Allocation Documents within the Waste Development Framework.

6.3The Hertfordshire Waste Partnership (HWP) recognises the need for continual improvement and service planning. Objective 8 of the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy (JMWMS) 2007 states:

" work together within the HWP to research develop and deliver better co-ordinated services and infrastructure for waste collection, transfer, treatment and disposal".

To deliver this Objective, the WDA has identified the following operational areas that need to be considered as part of the longer term service improvement plan and locational strategy:

  • Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) to provide a waste disposal service for bulky and other wastes not collected at the kerbside. The Core Policies of the JMWMS 2007 provide the basis for this work:

Core Policy 7 states “The HWP led by the Waste Disposal Authority will provide a network of quality HWRC’s which maximise the opportunity for segregated collection of as a broad a range of materials as available markets allow.The HWP lead by the disposal authority will seek to provide materials reclamation facilities in order to maximise the income generation potential of dry materials collected at kerbside”.

Core Policy 8 states “HWP will encourage re-use of appropriate products and materials, particularly those which can be collected in an appropriate manner through bulky waste collections and at HWRCs”.

The County Council as the WDA for Hertfordshire has a statutory duty to provide places where its residents can dispose of their own household waste free of charge. In Hertfordshire these places are known as Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) of which there is a network of nineteen spread evenly across the county such that more than 95% of Hertfordshire residents live within

5 miles of their nearest centre.

The HWRC network is made up of centres which vary significantly in nature. Some are ‘state of the art’ centres which have been constructed in recent years but, in contrast, some are only barely adequate in terms of either suitability or sufficiency. Each year the centres are assessed against a range of criteria and classified as either ‘green’, ‘amber’ or ‘red’.

In general terms, the ‘green’ centres are expected to be fit for purpose for the foreseeable future and therefore are unlikely to be in need of replacement. The ‘amber’ and ‘red’ centres, however, are all likely to be in need of relocation during the period up to 2021 and these include:

  • A replacement for the Cole Green, Elstree, Hoddesdon and Ware HWRC's.
  • A potential new facility to serve the Hitchin / Letchworth Garden City / Stevenage area.

The proposed work will seek to identify appropriate areas of search for the location of replacement or new facilities, based upon robust, defendable criteria.

  • In-vessel and open windrow composting facilities capable of accepting separated and mixed organic wastes. The Core Policies of the JMWMS 2007 provide the basis for this work.

Core Policy 5 states "Jointly, the Hertfordshire authorities will aim to recycle and compost a minimum of

  • 40% of household waste by 2008
  • 45% of household waste by 2010
  • 50% of household waste by 2012

The action plan sets intermediate targets".

Core Policy 3 states "Kerbside collections of garden waste are well established and popular services which are effective in delivering higher rates of recycling and composting and diverting biodegradable waste from landfill. In order to reflect the primacy of waste prevention, the Hertfordshire Authorities will:

  • Promote home composting of biodegradable waste
  • Provide support to ensure that residents home compost successfully (through support and education), and
  • With a view to the longer term, the HWP authorities will review the approach to bio waste collection in the light of experience with garden waste collections in Hertfordshire and elsewhere, in order that the unnecessary collection of new additional waste is avoided".

The County Council has made good progress with the provision of In-Vessel and windrow composting facilities with two contracted facilities that are situated within Hertfordshire, at Cumberlow Green (25kt p.a.) and Ridge (48.5kt p.a.). There are additional contracts with a composting facility at St. Ives (25kt p.a.) in Cambridgeshire and with the West London Composting Ltd. (25kt p.a.) facility at Harefield in the London Borough of Hillingdon.

From a service improvement perspective it is recognised that there is a need for a third facility of around 50kt capacity located within the county. Such a facility would enable the WDA to be self-sufficient within the county and reduce the number of journeys associated with this service. Areas of search will be identified based upon robust defendable criteria.

  • Facilities for transferring waste to treatment facilities. The Core Policies of the JMWMS 2007 provide the basis for this work:

Core Policy 13 states "The Hertfordshire Waste Partnership will ensure residual waste treatment facilities compliment the waste hierarchy and help to secure self-sufficiency in landfill allowance".

Core Policy 14 states "The Hertfordshire Waste Partnership will seek residual waste treatment solutions that contribute to sustainability targets and bring such benefits as energy generation".

In support of the delivery of these Core Policies the County Council has considered the supporting infrastructure required to ensure the efficient operation of the reference case. One proposal is that an additional waste transfer station be built in the East of the county to enable the bulking of household waste and to reduce the number of journeys that would need to be made by refuse collection vehicles. It is proposed that further work be undertaken to assess the need and locational requirements for this and further transfer stations. They would appear to provide service improvements by reducing the time taken and transport costs to the reference case. Areas of search will be identified based upon robust defendable criteria.

  • Facilities for localised waste storage / sorting such as Materials Recycling Facilities.
  • Residualwaste treatment facilities. In support of Policies 13 and 14, the County Council has approved an Outline Business Case for Waste PFI Credits that details its future residual waste treatment requirements. Those requirements enable the identification of an Area of Search for residual waste facilities based upon the location of need, scale of need, catchment, transportation distance, cost and other factors. Based on the analysis, a reference case for the period up to 2039/40 has been developed for a 270,000 tonne Energy from Waste (EfW) plant located at New Barnfield, Hatfield which is owned by the County Council. In addition, the analysis has identified a requirement to dispose of a further 75,000 tonnes of waste that includes bulky and oversized items, street sweepings, fly-tipped waste etc.

6.4Each of these types of facilities will need to coexist together to provide a robust waste management infrastructure capable of meeting the various needs of the WDA in the future.

7.Financial Implications

7.1There are no immediate financial implications relating to this report. The service improvement strategy will require the use of a specialist consultant at a cost yet to be determined. In the longer term securing appropriate sites along with physical improvements to facilities will require capital investment.

Background Papers

2008 Service Annual Accommodation Statement

Hertfordshire Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy 2007

090414 02 Spatial Strategy1