The Challenge Ahead - Councillor Lisa Chambers, Portfolio
Holder for Waste
Suffolk has an excellent waste service. The local Suffolk Councils
were awarded Beacon Status in 2007/2008 for having one of the best
waste and recycling services in the country.
We met our demanding Government target (PSA 1) to deliver 35%
recycling and composting and achieved our PSA 2 target of 39% for
2008/2009.
We have also been successful in bidding for £14 million of
Government money to help deliver our high quality waste service to
Suffolk residents.
We are committed to doing all we can to increase
recycling and composting in Suffolk and I would like to thank
you for all your efforts in helping us to achieve our successes so
far. However, we still have a huge challenge ahead of us.
The Government has set us targets to reduce the amount of
biodegradable waste we send to landfill by 50,000 tonnes (33%)
between 2009/10 and 2012/13. If we don't meet these targets, we
will be fined and we could pay more in Council Tax to cover
increasing disposal costs. However it is unlikely that such a rise
could take place due to government capping. We may therefore see a
reduction in the breadth of services the Council can deliver.
We must take measures to deal with the residual waste which is left
when we have recycled and composted as much as possible. It will
not be enough just to recycle and compost more as there will always
be some waste left over.
We have looked at all the available options but some are still new
technologies and would involve taking big risks with Council Tax
payers’ money.
We currently favour
Energy from Waste as it is a good environmental choice, is the
cheapest option and we know it can work for Suffolk.
A survey conducted on behalf of the Suffolk Waste Partnership
suggests that Suffolk residents also back our preferred option,
with 63% of people surveyed saying they would support Energy from
Waste.
What happens next?