New household waste contracts to move away from landfill in Hertfordshire

Household waste from Hertfordshire will be sent to energy recovery sites rather than landfill by ‘default’ when new waste contracts come into force in April, county councillors have been told.

The county council disposes of household waste collected at the kerbside and its network of recycling centres.

And at a budget scrutiny meeting on Friday (January 26) councillors heard about the move away from landfill.

“From April ’24 the default will be nothing to landfill because we are going to energy recovery facilities,” executive member for the environment Cllr Eric Buckmaster told councillors.

Cllr Buckmaster referred to four new contracts, starting in April – where the default will be ‘nothing to landfill’.

He did accept there would be certain materials that may not be able to go to energy recovery, ‘but the vast majority will’.

Cllr Buckmaster made the remarks at an online session where councillors scrutinised 2024/25 budget proposals under the county council’s environment portfolio.

That portfolio includes waste and recycling, Sustainable Hertfordshire, countryside rights of way and the work of the council as the lead local flood authority.

At the meeting Cllr Buckmaster highlighted the significant investment there had been in recycling centres, including Tewin Road in Welwyn Garden City.

And he also pointed to the ongoing investment in Waterdale and the Eastern transfer stations.

According to the budget document, know as the ‘integrated plan’, the county council will allocate £56.5m of revenue spent on ‘environment’ next year 9(24/5).

Meanwhile there is a further £23.4 allocated for capital investment – which includes £12m towards the ongoing work to construct the Eastern transfer station and £9m towards the ongoing work at Waterdale.

There are also plans to include a further £220k investment towards improvements at Berkhamsted recycling centre and £315k towards ongoing improvements at the Bishop’s Stortford recycling centre.

Energy recovery from waste is the conversion of non-recyclable waste materials into usable heat, electricity, or fuel through a variety of processes, including combustion, gasification, pyrolization, anaerobic digestion and landfill gas recovery. This process is often called waste to energy.