In a LetsRectcle article entitled Sheffield approves major waste budget increase we read that:
Sheffield city council has approved plans to improve its kerbside recycling service at a cost of up to £3.1 million a year, despite needing to make cutbacks of up to £18 million in its overall spending for 2010/11.
The council approved proposals to increase both the frequency and range of materials included in its kerbside collections as part of a new waste strategy for 2009-2020 at a cabinet meeting last week (November 25 2009).
Commenting on the improvements, the council’s cabinet member for climate change and local environment, councillor Shaffaq Mohammed, comes close to admitting that Veolia’s Sheffield incinerator has held back the City’s recycling rates for years:
However, given that Sheffield has the lowest kerbside recycling service satisfaction rate of any major city and the rest of Yorkshire, we know that a transformation in this area is required…I’m confident that our plans will deliver this to ensure that we see a recycling revolution right across Sheffield.
The strategy reveals that, by introducing the changes, it aims to increase residents’ satisfaction with their kerbside collection service, as well as working towards achieving a 45% recycling rate by 2015.
Sheffield City Council’s Waste Strategy will add to the scramble for waste to burn in Sheffield’s incinerator:
By working with Veolia we will seek a joined up approach to sharing waste treatment facilities, including our Energy Recovery Facility, to maximise the carbon saving for municipal waste.
4.1.8 The current Planning Permission for the Energy Recovery Facility allows 10% of the 225,000 tonnes capacity of the facility to be imported from the neighbouring authorities of Rotherham and North East Derbyshire.
4.1.9 This current planning permission allows waste to be transported from a distance of 15.1 miles away (as the crow flies) from the Energy Recovery Facility. Other local authorities are producing municipal waste closer still to the Energy Recovery Facility, and taking some of this other municipal waste to the Energy Recovery Facility would further reduce the environmental impacts of transporting this waste for treatment.
4.1.10 With the decrease in household waste forecast for treatment at the Energy Recovery Facility as shown in figure 4.2 and allowing for 20,000 tonnes of municipal waste, around 8% of household arisings for Sheffield, the current 10% allowance for imported waste could be doubled without compromising the priority of Sheffield municipal waste through the [incineration] facility.
So, look out Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster, Worksop, and Chesterfield – Sheffield Veolia is turning to you to help keep the incinerator burning.
Also see: Did McDonald’s give Sheffield’s incinerator indigestion?
