Last year Project Integra, the innovative partnership of all local authorities in Hampshire dealing with household waste, processed over 100,000 tonnes of material through recycling and composting. The County’s recycling rate is currently around 25%, one of the highest in the country and over twice the national average of 12%. The rate is set to rise yet further in the next few years.

The success of recycling in Hampshire is driven by public demand as well as effective local planning for reprocessing facilities, Government targets and European wide legislation.

However, despite this fantastic achievement, the success of public participation in recycling in Hampshire is currently greater than the capacity to deal with it. Cllr Richard Williams, a Councillor from Southampton, who chairs the Project Integra Management Board says "In Hampshire we have done much to put in place the necessary but expensive infrastructure needed to process material. We have a new facility near Alton under development which in due course will be able to process an extra 85,000 tonnes of material a year. In addition, we have been awarded over £5m by the Government to develop our plans to collect more material and compost an extra 30,000 tonnes of garden waste a year".

Cllr Williams continued "Unfortunately this has meant that in the short term a very small percentage of poorer quality recyclable material has had to be landfilled. The Management Board has approved a plan to use new processing capacity elsewhere in the south of England as a stop gap until our own facilities are on line, thus preventing this situation from continuing ". This will be at a premium price over the cost of landfilling. The extra funds will come from the sale of recyclable material.

Says Cllr Patrick Burridge, Vice Chairman of the Board representing East Hampshire District Council "Project Integra has long term contracts in place for the reprocessing of materials recycled by the residents of Hampshire. To continue to meet the contractual obligations and to utilise the additional reprocessing capacity now available, residents are urged to continue recycling as they have always done, and have faith that we will find the solution to reprocessing it."

Ends

21^st January 2003

Note to editors:
Household waste management in Hampshire currently costs around £100m per year. Hampshire has a Government target to recycle or compost 40% of municipal waste by 2005/6. A new MRF (Materials Recovery Facility) where paper, card, plastic bottles and cans are sorted is being built near Alton and £2.3m was recently awarded to Integra Partnership, out of a total package of £5m, to expand composting facilities. The Integra partnership was recently acknowledged in a Government Strategy Unit report on how added value can be achieved through partnership working. The Partnership was awarded Beacon Status by the Government in 2002/01for Dealing with Waste.

Contact : Steve Read, Executive Officer – Project Integra
c/o The Old College
College Street
Petersfield
Hampshire
GU31 4AG