LAWR

NEWS July 2015 Local Authority Waste & Recycling 5 FOR MORE NEWS AND ANALYSIS VISIT www.edie.net /waste Local authorities have been warned not to automatically buy into into DCLG's assertion that they should club together to procure bins and trucks. The 'Household waste collection: procurement savings opportunities' report suggested savings of £70m were possible. However, writing for the Insomnia blog, Eunomia's Joe Papineschi and Gwen Frost, highlight a number of flaws with the analysis. The £5 saving per wheeled bin, for instance, is deemed "largely mythical, whether its claimed source is uniformity, bulk discount, or colour choice" for those buying End to dodgy analysis at DCLG? Minister confirmed Rory Stewart is the new minister for resource and environmental management, Defra has announced. Stewart, the Conservative MP for Penrith and The Border, replaces Dan Rogerson as parliamentary under secretary of state at the department. His portfolio will also include floods and water, the natural environment and rural affairs, according to the department's website. The breadth of his responsibilities, as well as the fact that Defra will now have three rather than four ministers, is a concern for the waste sector. CIWM said it would be seeking an "early meeting" with Stewart, in particular to discuss the circular economy package being developed by the European Commission (see overleaf). Stewart will deputise for Liz Truss, the environment secretary, on the EU's environment council of ministers, so could be close to the action as the policy evolves. North London ERF plans revealed The North London Waste Authority has published bold plans to develop a new £500m energy recovery facility that will generate electricity from non- recyclable waste to power local homes and businesses. The site will also help the area hit its 50% recycling target. The second phase of the NLWA's public consultation – running between 18 May and 30 June – included more details of the project as well as designs that "best fit the surrounding area" (see right). If approved, the North London Heat & Power Project (see image right), situated in the Edmonton EcoPark in Enfield, would generate power for around 127,000 homes and provide heat for local homes and businesses. "We want to prevent waste, we want you to recycle it and anything you can't, we're going to turn into fuel and use it to heat and power homes," said NLWA chair Cllr Clyde Loakes. The new plant would replace the existing energy-from-waste plant, which has served the area for more than 45 years but is coming to the end of its operational life. Loakes said the new facility "will be one of the best performing in Europe" in terms of air quality – the latest technology will ensure the site's emissions of nitrogen oxides, for example, are 60% below the current permissible limits. There will also be a dedicated resource recovery facility – allowing bulky waste to be separated for recycling – and a recycling centre for the public and businesses from 2021. The ERF would be operational by 2025. through established frameworks. The consultants also note how for trucks "the 10% saving estimate comes from a joint vehicle procurement exercise in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, but is derived by comparing the lowest tender price with the second lowest. There's no comparison of the quality of the bids, and […] no justification is given for the assumption that, had the authorities tendered individually, they would only have been offered the second best price." The DCLG report proved to be the last of Eric Pickles' tenure at DCLG, having been replaced by Greg Clark. "One of the key tests of whether [Clark's] arrival marks a change of approach will be whether his DCLG will continue Eric Pickles' practice of relying on dubious statistics to do down local government for petty political reasons," the blog concluded. Rubbish stats. DCLG's figures on procurement savings have been criticised by consultants.

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