PI STRATEGY AIMS, OBJECTIVES, TARGETS, AND POLICIES.

Aims

The fundamental aim of Project Integra is to provide a long-term solution for dealing with Hampshire's household waste in an environmentally sound, cost effective and reliable way. Success in achieving this aim depends on joint working between all the parties in the best interests of the community at large.

Action by the partners in a number of key areas has been identified in order to achieve this aim. Namely:

• The support and understanding of the wider public needs to be gained, together with a change in public habits.
• Implementation of initiatives to try and stop the growth in waste produced by householders and put out for collection.
• Making access to recycling much easier for people by completing the introduction of kerbside collection systems
• The provision of processing facilities for recyclables and compostables
• Maintenance and development of the household waste recycling centre (HWRC) network's role in reuse and recycling
• Securing of stable markets for the recovered materials and products
• A new delivery point and treatment facility infrastructure, including granting of planning consents for, and construction of, transfer stations and energy recovery incinerators
• Provision of supporting landfill capacity

Project Integra as a concept developed in the early 1990’s from a need to deliver a long-term waste management strategy for Hampshire. The local authority partners published a joint consultation document in 1995 (Dealing with Hampshire’s Waste - The Proposed Solution) which has become the cornerstone of the integrated waste management strategy employed in Hampshire. Its objectives accord with those published in the first draft strategy for Hampshire in 1993 (Dealing with Hampshire’s Waste -The Way Forward) and can be summarised as:

1. To deliver a programme for the minimisation, reuse and recycling of waste to achieve a minimum of 25% reduction in waste requiring disposal.
2. For the local authority partners, in consultation with local people and local interest groups, to jointly develop specific proposals for the long term
3. To provide adequate waste processing facilities, taking into account local views.
4. To provide the most efficient methods for collection of waste based on the process to be decided.
5. To develop composting and anaerobic digestion to further reduce waste requiring final disposal, subject to technical investigations and affordability.
6. To recover resources from residual waste through the development of between three and five resource recovery facilities.
7. To dispose of ultimate residual waste by using landfill.

The consultation document "Dealing with Hampshire’s Waste - The Proposed Solution" proposed three targets to be adopted as a focus to delivery of the strategy. These were subsequently adopted by the Project Integra Partners and were:

• To keep `dustbin' waste (which means waste from households) at 1995 levels;
• Achieve 25% recycling (of household waste) by the year 2000;
• Increase recycling (of household waste) to 40% in the long term;

With the publication of the Government’s guidance on Statutory Performance Standards for recycling, these now form the new standard for this element and the landfill directive also forms a target for the diversion of waste from landfill.

Policies

Implementation of the Project Integra strategy requires action by all the partners, either individually or jointly. The respective roles of the partners are set out in Table 2 below and are underpinned by a number of agreements. The roles of the private sector partners are defined through contracts, the largest of which is the main disposal service contract with Hampshire Waste Services Ltd. This is a long term (25+ years) service contract that commenced on 1 January 1996. Hampshire County Council, together with Portsmouth and Southampton City Councils are joint clients to this contract and share responsibilities and obligations as Waste Disposal Authorities according to a tri-partite agreement (awaiting completion).

Table 2 - Project Integra - Roles and Responsibilities of the Partners

The relationship between the district councils and Hampshire County Council, and the role of each local authority within Project Integra is set out in a Memorandum of Understanding. This was completed in 1997 and, although not legally binding, provides the mainstay to the success of the partnership. Its guiding principles are:

• Project Integra has developed from an integrated waste management strategy as a result of close working between the district councils and the county council. Mutual support and co-operation has been the key to the whole operation and the success of the strategy is dependent on the continuation of this approach;
• In determining the viability of, and continuation or otherwise of any activity or process, regard should be had to the effect and impact of that decision upon the council tax payer as a whole and the impact on the integrated waste management approach;
• Matters requiring decisions where the principles of the above apply will be referred to the regional groups or, if countywide, to the WDA/WCA Strategy group for determination; and
• When determining matters, regard should be had to the principles of Local Agenda 21and sustainability from both the environmental and economic perspectives, and the fact that all parties are constrained by finite resources.

The MU goes on to clarify roles and obligations for the parties in the following areas:

• Waste Deliveries - specifically ownership and wastes excluded from the agreement, including certain recyclables.
• Disposal arrangements and costs for commercial and industrial waste
• Waste volume and service planning
• Contract management
• Provision of and opening hours of delivery points for collected waste, and contingency arrangements if they are unavailable
• Collection and processing of collected recyclables, garden waste and biowaste
• Input specifications for collected recyclables, garden waste and biowaste
• Marketing of recyclables and distribution of income
• Separated recyclables (e.g. bank material)
• Promotional activities
• Abandoned vehicles
• Household waste recycling centres (Amenity sites)

Waste Management and Recycling Infrastructure

Project Integra provides the following facilities, infrastructure and services:

• 10 Delivery points where waste collection authorities can drop off collected waste for disposal and/or recycling
• 3 Material Recycling Facilities (total 56,000 tpa capacity)
• 26 Household Waste Recycling Centres (Amenity Sites)
• Over 500,000 households with kerbside collection of recyclables (in excess of 75%)
• 56,000 tpa capacity compost Plants
• Over 100,000 home composters issued (in excess of 15%)
• Over 1600 Bank sites

Its key objectives are;

iii. To provide adequate waste processing facilities, taking into account local views.

iv. To provide the most efficient methods for collection of waste based on the process to be decided.

v. To develop composting and anaerobic digestion to further reduce waste requiring final disposal, subject to technical investigations and affordability.

vi. To recover resources from residual waste through the development of between three and five resource recovery facilities.

vii. To dispose of ultimate residual waste by using landfill.

1. In the short term, the focus of the action plan is to achieve a 40% recycling rate for Hampshire. It should be noted that these can only be achieved through considerable investment in both collection and processing infrastructure. These costs are discussed in section three. The partnership also wishes to explore targets beyond 40%, but considers that a substantial change in approach will be required to deliver it. This will embrace the wider issues of resource management including exploring the potential for using the potential benefits of scale from recycling commercial waste to be used to assist the operation and efficiency of integrated household waste management. Plans are already in hand to develop such a process in partnership with commercial partners, the business and local communities in Hampshire. When they are developed further they will be subject to further consultation and form part of a longer term Waste Management Strategy.
   
   

2. Delivery of the short term strategy will focus principally on achieving a higher capture rate of dry mixed recyclables at the kerbside, by maximising existing collection systems. In doing this, the partners will aim for a more uniform collection process across the County. The use of new county wide collections for other materials such as glass and green garden waste will be explored and the role of the Household Waste Recycling Centre network will also be extended. This will include the concept of the 'Resource Park' as discussed recently with the Cabinet Office Performance and Innovation Unit. A diagram of the concept of the resource park is attached as supplementary information to this bid. It is estimated that a park of this nature could each bring new employment opportunities for over 200 people.
   
   

3. The action plan to meet the BVPI's for household waste management has been prepared using the extensive data that the partnership has available on household waste arisings and composition and public attitudes in Hampshire. In turn this has enabled the partnership to model how different schemes and scenarios can divert waste and calculate both the resulting recycling rate and the infrastructure capacity necessary to process the material.
   
   

4. The key outputs of this process are individual action plans for each collection authority to meet their BVPI standards, and at the same time, to meet the overall Project Integra Strategy and targets. Through this work and the waste volume service plan process an assessment of the joint processing capacity that is required to deal with those action plans has been prepared. The individual Waste Collection Authority action plans together with the Waste Disposal Authorities proposals for additional Household Waste Recycling Centre (Civic Amenity) sites are shown at appendix 6.
   

The following is a summary of the action plan:

i. WDA Processing Infrastructure

The table below shows the maximum capacity for MRF and composting under the current waste disposal contract with Hampshire Waste. This falls well short of the capacity required for Hampshire authorities to meet their BVPI standards. There is an urgent need for more processing capacity to be established in order to meet these standards

	MRF (tonnes/annum)	Compost (tonnes/annum
Maximum capacity under current contract*	114,000	56,000
Capacity required to meet 2003/04 BVPIs	147,000 (33,000 additional)	90,000 (34,000 additional)
Capacity required to meet 2005/06 BVPIs	190,000 (76,000 additional)	120,000 (64,000 additional)