Treatment site for food waste could cost in excess of £7.3m
County council considers plans to meet new requirements
West Sussex County Council is to consider spending just under £7.3million to enable a waste treatment site to process food waste.
The work, which would take around one year to complete, has been proposed for the Brookhurst Wood mechanical biological treatment (MBT) facility, near Warnham.
Under the new Environment Act 2021, the various district and borough council sin West Sussex will soon be required to collect food waste separately from recycling or general household rubbish. But the responsibility of disposing of that waste falls on the county council.
Approximately 40 per cent of household waste in the county, by weight, is food waste – but the Brookhurst Wood site cannot process it separately to all the other rubbish.
The matter will be discussed during a communities, highways and environment scrutiny committee meeting today (March 2).
A report to the committee said: “The government has yet to confirm the timing of and funding for implementation of the new duty. However, given the time frames required to amend major contracts and implement new arrangements, the county council needs to consider options for how to meet the obligation that will fall to it.”
Brook hurst Wood is operated by Biffa under a 25-year materials resource management contract, which would need to be varied.
If all goes as planned, the multi-million pound investment would not only allow the facility to process food waste, it would also provide a dry mixed recycling centre for Horsham District Council.
The district does not currently have one, meaning its recycling has to be delivered to sites in Ford, Burgess Hill or Crawley – with the county council ‘compensating’ the district to the tune of £314,000 per year.
Not only would the improved facility eliminate that cost, it would also reduce the number of lorries on the road and the pollution they bring.
Food waste collections have already been trialled in several parts of West Sussex.
Arun District Council has held the largest so far. More than 1,300 households in Littlehampton took part in the trial, which started in May and has now been extended to February 2023. The 1-2-3 system sees food waste and optin absorbent hygiene products collected weekly, recycling continue to be picked up fortnightly, but general waste has moved to every three weeks.