Waste Not, Want Not

by Don Stewart, Planning Group

The work of the Hampshire, Southampton and Portsmouth Material Resource Strategy (MRS) under a series of workshops has provided a collective picture of waste resource streams for Hampshire.

Not only do they express these in terms of total waste arising, but also in relation to stakeholder preferred reuse and recycling. SEERA has also developed a Waste Strategy for the South East containing policies that draw on the work of the MRS and provide targets for waste growth. MRS now reflects these targets.

For Hampshire to meet the growth in waste of 1% per annum by 2010, or 0.5% by 2020, it is estimated that some 6.3 million tonnes per annum will have to be processed. The Construction Industry (building, demolition, and excavation waste) makes up the largest stream (45%) followed by food waste (8%), paper and card (7%), greenwaste (5%) and plastics (5%). Some 19% cannot however be attributed to an individual resource stream viz., end-of-life vehicles (ELV), electrical goods, refrigerators and non-recyclable waste. To meet even the modest targets kerbside collection initiatives will need to increase in all urban and rural areas with the penalty of more HGV on roads and pollution from noise and carbon dioxide emissions.

Although current plant and transfer facilities in Hampshire are able to cope with the increase in paper, card and plastics targets; significant capital will be needed to build Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) and transfer stations.

The glass recovery plant in Southampton will need to be extended.

The largest capital outlay will be for the plant on between 5 and 10 sites across the region and access routes to cater for construction and demolition waste processing and the transfer of recycled aggregate. The annual consumption of aggregates is expected to stabilise by 2016, by which time, recycled material and secondary aggregates will account for 39% of the total. It is considered by MRS that north Hampshire is light in this regard.

New sites will be requires for aggregate extraction, as sites are worked-out and landfill sites become full. It is also clear that planning permission in future not only will need to extend the lives of existing landfill sites but also introduce longer working hours. SEERA want the South East to accept non-recyclable waste from London. This is being strongly challenged by members.

Hazardous and Chemical waste will increase and SEERA expects some 43% to be recycled by existing plant and raises a need for two soil treatment sites each of 2 hectares. This latter requirement could be located alongside agricultural waste recycling on small on-farm facilities in the countryside. MRS note that three Authorised Treatment Facilities (ATFs) will be required to handle ELV provided Hampshire continue to export out recycled components.

CPRE Hampshire does not oppose recycling per se; rather it perceives progress in this field as a delicate balance between what can be recycled efficiently without unacceptable pollution and environment damage to members of the public and the landscape.

May 2005