News from Peterborough City Council

A series of roadshows beginning next week (Saturday 6 September) is being organised to explain why Peterborough City Council needs to develop new materials recycling and energy-from-waste facilities to end the environmental damage caused when rubbish is buried in landfill sites.

 

Prior to the roadshows all residents will receive a consultation brochure explaining that the city council wants to build the new waste management facilities in the Fengate area.

 

Roadshows are planned on Saturday 6 September from 9 am to 5 pm and on Thursday 11 September from 9 am to 4 pm in Cathedral Square; and on Saturday 13 September at Brotherhood Retail Park, Walton, from 10 am to 12 noon and at Serpentine Green shopping centre, Hampton, from 2 pm to 4 pm. There will also be a drop-in session at Dogsthorpe Community Centre on Wednesday 10 September starting at 2 pm.

 

Under a policy adopted in February 2007 the city council aims to recycle and compost over 65 per cent of discarded household and garden materials by 2020 and to use non-recycled waste as fuel to generate electricity and heat in an energy-from-waste plant.

 

The measures will minimise environmental damage caused by methane, a potent global warming gas that is produced when biodegradable rubbish decomposes in landfill sites.  They will also offer sustainable recycling and disposal solutions when the Dogsthorpe landfill site used for municipal waste is filled and closed by the end of 2013.

 

Councillor Wayne Fitzgerald, Cabinet member for the environment, urged all residents to read the consultation brochure carefully and to visit the roadshows to have their questions answered.

 

He said:  "Environmental protection laws mean we must adopt more sustainable approaches to waste management.  It is important that local residents give us their feedback on our plans to meet those legal requirements.

 

"Peterborough residents have helped make the city one of the UK's top recyclers by using our recycling centre, bring banks and three-bin household collection service to full advantage.  However, we still need to achieve more to prevent the environmental damage caused by landfilled rubbish."

 

Last year Peterborough recycled and composted 46.6 per cent of discarded household and garden materials but still landfilled around 50,000 tonnes of waste.  Despite a growing population, the city must reduce volumes of biodegradable rubbish being landfilled to just 34,135 tonnes 75 per cent of 1995 levels by 2009/10.

 

The target reduces to 22,736 tonnes (50 per cent of the 1995 total) by 2012/13 and to just 15,909 tonnes (35 per cent of the 1995 total) by 2019/20.  Failure to hit the targets will incur fines of £150 for every tonne of 'over target' rubbish being landfilled.

 

As a result, the city council has adopted a policy that aims to raise recycling rates to over 65 per cent and to use non-recycled waste as fuel to generate heat and power in an energy-from-waste plant.  For more information visit: www.65percentplus.co.uk.

 

 

Notes:

 

The city council's Waste 2020 strategy, adopted in February 2007, reflects the results of public consultations that began in 2001 and is based on the recommendations of a councillor-led cross-party Members' Waste and Recycling Working Group.

 

A second public consultation, lasting from 8 September to 20 October, focuses on a Minerals and Waste Plan drawn up by Peterborough City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council.  It lists the preferred locations for extraction of construction materials such as sand, gravel, limestone and brick clay and for new waste management facilities up to 2026.

 

The Minerals and Waste Plan will be subject to another six-week consultation prior to submission to the Secretary of State in autumn 2009.  A public examination supervised by an independent inspector will be held in summer 2010, after which the inspector's report will be published in autumn 2010 leading to the plan's adoption in December 2010.

 

The plan documents will be made available at www.peterborough.gov.uk/page-4047 from Monday 8 September 2008.