Contact: Adrian Lee, ext 7004

1. Summary

1.1 The following decisions are sought:

(i) That the waste management strategy for Hampshire, known as Project Integra, previously approved by the County Council on 24 January 1996 and jointly adopted by all local authorities in Hampshire, be updated and proposed to Government as the Municipal Waste Management Strategy for Hampshire County Council.

(ii) That the following action plan for Project Integra achieving 40% recycling be approved, subject to funding:

(a) Dry recyclables collection systems be developed so as to attract an average of 60% of the material available to them through expansion and enhancement of existing systems and increased education, awareness and promotion.

(b) The household waste recycling centre network to be managed so as to at least maintain its contribution overall to Project Integra recycling performance levels and expanded to fill service area gaps in Basingstoke, Hart and the Waterside parishes of New Forest.

(c) Hampshire Waste Services Limited be instructed to provide the necessary processing infrastructure beyond current contract commitments.

(d) Authority be given, on behalf of the County Council, for the Joint Project Integra Members' Board to submit an application for funding the action plan from the Government's Waste Minimisation and Recycling Fund or, if this is not possible for technical or other reasons, that the County Surveyor, in consultation with the County Treasurer, be authorised to make the application on behalf of Project Integra.

(e) Authority be given to the County Surveyor, in consultation with the County Treasurer, to negotiate arrangements with other Project Integra partners that allow for some or all of any income received from Government to fund County Council costs of implementing the action plan, or savings that accrue as a result, to be used to subsidise and incentivise district council collections of recyclables and to ensure recycling infrastructure is fully utilised.

2. Reason

2.1 To enable the County Council to meet its statutory best value performance standards for recycling in a cost effective and environmentally effective way within the Project Integra framework.

3. Other Options Considered and Rejected - Not applicable.

4. Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Decision Maker or a Member or Officer consulted - Not applicable.

5. Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee - Not applicable.

6. Reason(s) for the Matter being dealt with if Urgent - Not applicable.

Approved by: Date:

Councillor K B Estlin

7. Background

7.1 The Government is committed to European Union targets for higher recycling of household waste and increasing levels of diversion of waste away from landfill. To help achieve this the Government has set statutory Best Value Performance Indicator (BVPI) standards for recycling, which individual local authorities are required to achieve. Local authorities are also encouraged to prepare a strategy for waste management in the form of a Municipal Waste Management (MWM) Strategy. District and County Authorities are encouraged to prepare a joint strategy to aid an integrated approach.

7.2 In Hampshire the Project Integra Partnership, which comprises the County Council, all District Councils, the Unitary Authorities in Hampshire and Hampshire Waste Services Limited, is already well placed to achieve the BVPI standards. The initial target of a 25% recycling rate by 2000 has been achieved. Hampshire authorities must now achieve rates of up to 33% by 2003/04 and 40% by 2005/06. The Project Integra Partnership has a joint strategy in place. This was prepared in the mid 1990s and included an extensive process of public involvement. It is considered that the strategy fully meets current Government requirements, subject to some minor modifications to reflect such issues as legislative changes, the establishment of a Project Integra Board, etc.

7.3 It is, however, clear that in order to meet the BVPI standards an action plan is needed to increase the amount of materials which are collected for recycling and to expand the capacity of processing infrastructure involved.

8. Action Plan

8.1 An action plan has been developed within the existing Project Integra strategy framework, following the basic principle of the 'waste hierarchy'. The waste hierarchy is:

(i) avoidance;

(ii) reduction;

(iii) repair/reuse;

(iv) recycle/compost;

(v) incinerate with energy recovery; and

(vi) landfill.

8.2 Options for achieving the BVPI standards have been developed and these are included as Appendix 1 to this report. A set of principles against which the options can be assessed has also been developed and an assessment table of how each option performs against these principles is attached as Appendix 2. Further work is needed to assess the detailed costs of these options and to evaluate their environmental impact.

9. Financial Issues

9.1 The need to manage costs is an important issue and will require three main actions:

(i) continue to pursue strongly the Project Integra policy for waste minimisation, in order to control the overall amount of material with which Project Integra has to deal;

(ii) continue to promote market development as a fundamental activity to maintain and expand markets for the growing amounts of waste materials that are collected and thereby derive an income. Project Integra already has a strong market available for recycled material, with contracts for the reuse or reprocessing of a number of materials, including glass, paper, textiles, green waste and cans. Continual development of markets is already in train to ensure that Project Integra's recycling efforts are not frustrated and widen the scope of current recycling opportunities; and

(iii) reduce unit costs through better use of existing infrastructure, sharing infrastructure with neighbouring waste disposal authorities, and through the Natural Resource Management initiative, including development of opportunities arising from commercial waste.

9.2 There will, nevertheless, be significant costs to the County Council if it is to meet the required performance levels. The current contract with HWS requires the provision of 114,000 tonnes of materials recovery facility (MRF) capacity for 2003/04, whereas the capacity needed to deliver the proposed action plan is 190,000 tonnes. Similarly the contract capacity for composting is 56,000 tonnes, but the proposed action plan would require capacity of 120,000 tonnes. This additional capacity is likely to cost some £2.7 million. If the County Council is to meet the Project Integra target, and now the BVPI performance standard of a 40% recycling rate, it will be necessary to commit to this infrastructure.

9.3 A further issue arises from this commitment, if agreed. Notwithstanding the need to achieve these standards and the plans which are being put in place to achieve them, there is no guarantee that the recyclable materials will be collected. The Council theoretically risks having to pay for capacity (along with the City Councils) without being able to utilise it. It is suggested that a mechanism would need to be found within Project Integra to share this risk with the waste collection authorities, or to enable the County Council and City Councils to benefit from the sale of any excess processing capacity. Conversely, if the targets are achieved the County Council could commit to sharing the savings which would result from reduced landfill payments to support higher collection costs.

9.4 The Government is making available a fund of £140 million for 2002/03 and 2003/04 to assist local authorities in England and Wales to achieve their BVPI standards. It is expected that local authorities will need to bid for funding and show how this will achieve higher recycling within a strategy framework.

9.5 On the basis of the draft Government guidance, it is expected that bids will need to be made by mid-March 2002. Despite this final details of the bid process and guidelines are not available at the time of writing, so it is difficult to recommend a clear way forward. It is, however, suggested that any bid should be made as a Project Integra bid and focus on five main elements:

(i) assist funding of the additional processing infrastructure required for recycling;

(ii) assist funding of the expansion of the existing Household Waste Recycling Centre network to meet identified service 'gaps' in Basingstoke, Hart and New Forest;

(iii) establish new kerbside collections of recyclables, eg glass and green waste, on a county-wide basis to take advantage of economies of scale, where these advantages are not outweighed by adverse environmental impacts;

(iv) meet district council bids for additional collection costs of higher recycling and maximising the effectiveness of existing infrastructure; and

(v) devise a programme of research, development and targeted promotions to raise public awareness of the need and opportunities for greater recycling. This would include encouraging community and voluntary sector involvement.

9.6 A successful bid could be used to fund processing infrastructure which may produce subsequent revenue savings for the County Council. This could be 'recycled' to collection authorities as a form of recycling credits to provide an incentive for higher recycling. This would, in turn, reduce the risk of the additional processing infrastructure being underused. It is suggested that these payments and the associated risk share be agreed with the Project Integra partners through the Project Integra Board. Detailed costs would be presented to Members before any commitment is made on such arrangements.

6988/AWL

APPENDIX 1

Five key options have been developed by officers within the Project Integra network; it is important to note that these are not mutually exclusive:

1. Develop the plans prepared by District Councils

District officers have considered proposals for increasing recycling in their own area, within an overall Project Integra framework, based on the data and processes referred to earlier. In many cases these proposals do not have district council approval or committed funding, but have been developed for use as a financial benchmark against which the other options can be measured. These plans have focused on increasing the effectiveness of existing kerbside recycling services, particularly glass, textiles and green waste.

2. Maximise the potential of the existing processing systems.

This option seeks to maximise the utilisation of existing systems within Project Integra. Kerbside collection of dry mixed recyclables is available to some 90% of households, but at present achieves less than 30% `capture rate' of the overall potential material. The implication of this option would be that each district would need to commit to seeking a high capture rate for kerbside collection of dry mixed recyclables, based on the upper limit of what is accepted as realistic. (The figure for each district would need to be established through further research.) A number of initiatives would need to be promoted on a collaborative basis to achieve this, including:

(i) targeted campaigns to raise awareness of the materials which can be recycled and the facilities available for recycling;

(ii) working in collaboration with community or charity groups; and

(iii) operational trials, eg the current green waste trials.

3. Develop new processes for collecting green waste and glass

This would include a review of regional/county-wide direct collection arrangements for glass and/or green waste. The separate collection of glass could be delivered either through commercial contract or through community based projects.

4. Develop options for extending household waste recycling centres or providing local collections target, particularly green waste collections and local collection systems, using for example refuse collection vehicles at weekends

The balance of existing/new household waste recycling centres (HWRCs), local collection points or suitable kerbside collections would, depending on local conditions, cost, etc, need further research to consider in detail.

5. Develop new processes for dealing with the residual element of collected waste

The Project Integra Strategy has already considered the options for an Anaerobic Digestion Plant. Other types of bio-mechanical processes with pre-sorting of recyclable materials also need to be considered.

APPENDIX 2

ASSESSMENT OF OPTIONS