More than a quarter of a million tonnes of waste could be diverted from UK landfill sites after a wave of PFI projects were confirmed.
Waste facilities in three areas in England will benefit after £300 million of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) investment was announced by Defra.
The three projects to receive PFI credits are:
* Hertfordshire County Council has been awarded £115.3 million in PFI credits. Their waste management project has the potential to divert up to 170,000 tonnes of biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) from landfill per annum once operational;
* Norfolk County Council has been awarded £91 million in PFI credits. Their waste management project has the potential to divert up to 70,000 tonnes of BMW from landfill per annum by 2020; and
* The South London Waste Partnership (comprising of four unitary authorities: Croydon, Kingston-upon-Thames, Merton, and Sutton) has been awarded £112.9 million in PFI credits. Their waste management project has the potential to divert up to 102,600 tonnes of BMW from landfill per annum once operational.
Environment Minister Jane Kennedy said: “Reducing our reliance on landfill is an essential part of the drive to tackle climate change and I welcome the ambitious commitment made by these partnerships.
“This will create a real incentive for the local authorities and industry to work together to reduce waste as well as reducing the environmental impact of landfill.”
These projects will make an important contribution to tackling climate change. Not only is there the potential to divert a total of 342,600 tonnes of BMW from landfill per year by 2020, they will also reduce carbon emissions from landfill. The total potential carbon dioxide emissions savings is approximately 137,500 tonnes, which is equivalent to removing 43,200 cars from the road for a year. In addition, these projects have the potential to create over 100 jobs once the plants are operational with up to 1000 jobs during construction and commissioning.
All authorities involved are aiming for a long-term minimum recycling and composting rate of over 50 per cent by 2020.
Municipal waste management statistics for England in 2007/08 were published by Defra last November and revealed the total amount of collected municipal waste has decreased by 0.6 million tones to an estimated 28.5 million tonnes in England in 2007/08 compared to 29.1 million tonnes in 2006/07, a decrease of 2.2 per cent. The average annual change in municipal waste over the five years to 2007/08 was a decrease of 0.6 per cent.
The UK has been set targets to reduce the amount of waste it sends to landfill under the EU Landfill Directive. The UK has a target to reduce the volume of biodegradable municipal waste sent to landfill to 75 per cent of the 1995 levels by 2010; 50 per cent by 2013; and 35 per cent by 2020.
In the Waste Strategy for England 2007, Defra published new national waste targets. These include higher targets for recycling and composting of household waste to at least 40 per cent by 2010; 45 per cent by 2015; and 50 per cent by 2020.
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