million per year has been awarded to the two councils over at least the next 25 years to develop new facilities to divert more and more waste away from landfill sites, which are the least environmentally-friendly way to manage waste.
A new waste treatment and disposal facility will now be procured to deal with 200,000 tonnes of residual waste – waste that cannot be recycled or composted. The actual technology which will be used for the new facility has not yet been determined, as the specification for the project will be output driven.
The technology proposed by the successful bidder for the contract could be mechanical biological treatment (which converts the waste into a product that can be used for fuel), energy from waste (which burns or incinerates the waste, recovering heat and/or energy from it), or anaerobic digestion (a natural process that breaks the waste down into a fuel). No site has yet been chosen for the location of the facility.
The plant will be supported by an ongoing programme of improvements to further encourage the recycling and composting of waste to achieve national targets for recycling levels of 55 per cent recycling by the year 2020.
This means that, in North Lanarkshire, recycling rates will need to double in just 13 years from the current recycling rate of 28 per cent, which exceeds national targets.
And, even if both councils meet the challenging recycling target – which will significantly reduce the amount of residual waste generated in Lanarkshire – not everything can be recycled or composted. However, a continued reliance on landfill as the means of disposing the residual waste is simply not an option – it is not sustainable, it does not make best use of resources, there is finite capacity in landfill sites, and there are challenging targets to reduce the waste diverted to landfill.
The residual waste treatment solution that can now be taken forward will address that by managing the amount of residual waste generated, reducing the impact on the environment and maximising the efficiency of resources – all of which will benefit communities across Lanarkshire.
On hearing the announcement of the Lanarkshire Strategic Waste Fund award, Councillor Jimmy Coyle, Convener of North Lanarkshire Council's Planning and Environment Committee, said: "While I am pleased the Scottish Executive has announced additional funding for the Lanarkshire residual waste project, we have yet to receive the specific details of the funding offer, which will need to be carefully examined.
"We will now further develop and submit our outline business case to the Scottish Executive for a long-term waste management solution. The outline business case will form the basis for a tender to be issued inviting companies to submit proposals for a contract over a 25-year period. To encourage innovation, the tender process will not be prescriptive in terms of technology or sites.
"At the same time, the Minister's announcement failed to include additional funding to support the significant increase in recycling and composting rates that will be required to meet the targets in the National Waste Plan of a one hundred per cent increase in recycling and composting. So, North Lanarkshire will be seeking additional support in this area – as will every other authority.
"We are committed to tackling waste management head-on, and we can now build on all that we have achieved to date."
Councillor Jim Logue, Convener of the Community Services Committee, said: "Here in North Lanarkshire, we have made tremendous progress in improving the way in which we deal with our waste thanks to our innovative recycle for good initiative, which has taken a dedicated and proactive approach to addressing the very serious issue of waste management.
"Recycling is now an easy, attractive, convenient and viable option in North Lanarkshire, with more than a quarter of a million recycling bins provided to households throughout the area as part of our kerbside collection schemes and major improvements to our waste disposal and recycling centres thanks to more than £3 million of investment.
"And while we will continue to develop initiatives to make recycling an everyday part of life in North Lanarkshire and to educate and encourage positive attitudes to waste management and recycling, the time has come to take a similarly bold approach to tackling the significant amounts of waste that cannot be recycled or composted. The new waste treatment facility will do just that."
The announcement of the Strategic Waste Fund award comes as North Lanarkshire Council embarks upon its ambitious change management programme, Service and People First, part of which includes a restructure of council departments. The new Environmental Services, which will be led by Executive Director, Paul Jukes, will bring together all the key services with direct responsibility for environmental issues, including the different services involved in Lanarkshire’s Waste Management Strategy and the new waste treatment facility.
Councillor Coyle concluded: "The joint approach North and South Lanarkshire Councils have taken to deal with waste management in this ambitious way is a terrific example of what Service and People First is all about. We are maximising the efficiency of our resources, providing best value, delivering for our communities and making a difference and that’s certainly no ‘waste’ of time. We all have a role to play in dealing with waste – whether as government, business or individuals – and, with appropriate funding, North and South Lanarkshire Councils will continue to rise to the waste challenge. This announcement is a further step in the right direction."
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