Archived press release

Date Published: 01/12/06

Aylesbury Vale District Council has agreed to sign up to a strategy that aims to significantly increase household recycling and reduce household waste by 2025. The Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire, which consists of Buckinghamshire County Co...

Aylesbury Vale District Council has agreed to sign up to a strategy that aims to significantly increase household recycling and reduce household waste by 2025.

The Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire, which consists of Buckinghamshire County Council that disposes of household waste, and the county’s four district councils, including AVDC, that collect the waste and provide collection services for recyclable materials, has developed a Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy. It sets out how the councils intend to manage the household waste produced by residents in the county over the next 20 years.

The strategy was approved by the full council last night (29 November) and includes ambitious targets for the reduction, recycling and treatment of the 275,000 tonnes of household waste produced by Buckinghamshire’s residents every year.

It costs millions of pounds to collect and dispose of the household waste produced in Buckinghamshire. But every year the amount of waste created grows. At the current rate of growth, Buckinghamshire’s authorities will have to deal with around 363,000 tones of municipal waste (household and waste from other local authority sources) by 2020.

The strategy to tackle this problem includes a proposed target of recycling and composting 60 per cent of all household waste, which would make Buckinghamshire among the best-performing waste disposal areas in the country. It focuses Buckinghamshire’s plans for dealing with waste on minimising what we produce, re-using what we can, high levels of recycling and then sustainable disposal of the remainder. It will mean Buckinghamshire almost doubling its recycling rate within the next 20 years.

It also brings the promise of improved household waste collections, including a two bin alternate week collection service, new containers for householders to collect a greater range of materials, more recycling sites and ongoing information and education programmes to encourage residents to reuse and recycle more.

The plan, on which there was extensive public consultation involving some 10,600 responses, also says the councils should consider proven technologies to deal with any leftover waste. The county council has decided to consider two options:
• Producing energy from waste (burning it to produce power, often known as ‘incineration’)
• A combination of mechanical biological treatment and anaerobic digestion (reducing the waste to a solid which can be used to create power from the gas it gives off)

The costs of building facilities range from around £50million to £90million. Running them could cost from between £10million and £15million a year.

The in-depth report on technologies is scheduled to go to the county council’s cabinet on January 15, 2007, when a decision on the way forward will be made. That could be the council financing and building a facility, working with a contractor to do so, or asking the waste management market to fund an appropriate solution. 

Councillor Michael Edmonds, Cabinet Member for Housing, Environment and Health, said: “Reducing the amount of waste we produce and increasing the amount of household waste we recycle is essential. Doing nothing is not an option – we have to act now to protect the interests of our residents and the environment. If we don’t provide a new strategy for managing waste we will face huge financial penalties from the government – which would affect council tax levels."

John Warder, Chairman of The Waste Committee for Buckinghamshire, said: “The Bucks Joint Waste Committee will continue its work with both county and district authorities to promote a joint solution to the waste problem. It is vital that our residents keep on improving our excellent recycling rates in order to keep the cost of disposal down. Only by working closely together can we all benefit.”

The waste strategy is expected to be formally adopted by all the councils by early next year. The final version will then be issued to DEFRA for approval. It is anticipated that the strategy will be in place by spring 2007.