LAWR

June 2015 Local Authority Waste & Recycling 19 ANAEROBIC DIGESTION irst things first: councils in Northern Ireland fully endorse and support the objective of diverting as much waste away from landfill as is practically possible. What's more, they continue to view food waste playing an integral part in meeting this aim. That over 85% of all the households in Northern Ireland have access to and are able to participate in a food waste collection system at the kerbside is testament to that. Some 565,000 households have a comingled system with food and garden waste collected together every two weeks. The remaining 63,000 households are served with a separate food only system collected weekly in nearly every case. Having said all that, the implementation of new legislation may present significant challenges for councils - particularly if well-established collection services must change. The Food Waste Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015 place a duty on councils and waste management firms to collect and transport food waste separately. The regulations came into operation in February this year and in April a ban was introduced on the landfilling of this separately collected food waste (see page 12). From April next year, food businesses that produce more than 50kg of food waste per week need to separate it for collection. For councils, the important date is April 2017. By then they have to make sure that every property has a separate for food waste. This is a year later than the original proposals, which is welcome news. The requirements have come against a backdrop of changes to the council framework in Northern Ireland - the number of councils having been cut from 26 to 11 - as well as additional responsibilities in relation to community and land use planning. The challenges being faced are best highlighted in arc21 – a waste management group of six councils covering 60% of the country's population. Work undertaken by consultants – which also underpins a Regulatory Impact Assessment produced by the Department of the Environment – clearly indentifies a weekly separate food waste collection system as their preferred option; the net cost of councils of introducing this is estimated to be the region of £4m over a 10-year period. However, arc21 estimates that the net cost to their councils over the same period is more likely to be £26m at current day prices. This takes account of capital expenditure for additional vehicles and revenue costs associated with the manning, fuelling and maintenance of vehicles, as well as savings from landfill at the same capture rate of food used by the consultants in their modelling. It also assumes no diminution to service and does not build in any communication costs. In terms of post-collection technology, the organic waste from arc21 is treated under contract via a small network of facilities using in-vessel technology. There is also a new plant in the pipeline. In-vessel treatment plants can continue to be used even if a separate collection of food waste is introduced (subject to the appropriate conditions being attached to permits and licences). But let's take a step back and look at collection. Food waste can be mixed with other organic waste at the treatment phase but, under the new regulations, the food and garden waste will have to be collected separately and then mixed at either a transfer station or at the in-vessel treatment plant. There is a caveat. The new legislation does allow a comingled system where the amount of food waste collected is not substantially less than that if it were collected separately. Unsurprisingly, discussions are ongoing with officials in government and at the Northern Ireland Environment Agency. Specifically, these discussions are taking place in order to clarify the precise nature and interpretation of the collections aspect of the new regulations. And what if a new collection regime is necessary? Well, considerable investment will be required and within a testing timescale – 2017 is not far away to get new services and vehicles in place, for instance. Public perception also needs to be considered – every local authority understands the challenges in communicating changes to services. Indeed, the challenges involved in switching from an established comingled organic waste collection system to a separate food waste collection system should not be underestimated. F " The net cost to councils over 10 years could be £26m " Ricky Burnett is arc21 policy and operations director and waste advisor to the Northern Ireland Local Government Association. Challenges ahead under new food waste laws Regulations to collect food waste separately could mean costly new services when comingled collections are already in place, says NILGA's Ricky Burnett.

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