The majority of Leeds’ rubbish is still buried in the ground. Burying rubbish costs huge amounts of money every year. We cannot continue to bury rubbish in the ground.
What can we do about it?
Step 1: reduce the amount of waste we produce by buying products with less packaging, or wasting less food by making a shopping list.
Step 2: reuse items or giving things you don’t want anymore to charity. Use bags for life instead of plastic bags.
Step 3: recycle as much as you can through the councils recycling collection services for example kerbside collections, bring banks and household waste sorting sites.
We are working hard to help residents to reduce the amount of waste that is landfilled and recycle over half of Leeds’ waste. Many residents still don’t have access to any recycling collections so we are taking steps to make sure that they do.
Even if we do all these things, there will be a proportion of rubbish that is not recycled and will still end up being buried in the ground. We need to build a facility to recover as much value from this rubbish as possible to reduce the environmental and financial problems associated with burying rubbish.
How are we doing this?
£68.6 million has been put aside by the government to help the council build a facility to deal with the waste that is not recycled.
In July 2008, the council advertised a contract to build and run a ‘residual waste treatment facility’. By January 2009, eight bidders had put forward proposals. The council short-listed to four proposals in April 2009, and the to two in February 2010.
The process to buy this facility is both site and technology neutral. This means the council has never had a preference for a particular site or technology treatment.
The final two bidders are:
- Aire Valley Environmental who are proposing to build a facility at the current Knostrop sewage treatment site
- Veolia ES Aurora Ltd who are proposing to build a facility at the former wholesale market on Cross Green industrial estate
In the coming years the key dates are:
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Summer 2010 – Public consultation to inform final proposals
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Autumn 2010 – Final proposals from two bidders
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Summer 2011 – Successful bidder chosen
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Autumn 2011 – Bidder submits planning application
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Autumn 2011 – Public consultation on planning application begins
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Autumn 2012 – Planning decision
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Autumn 2012 – Construction begins
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Summer/Autumn 2015 – Facility starts processing waste