Sheffield City Council has asked for an exemption from the Government’s Food Waste collection strategy due to its contractual obligations with Veolia who collect the city’s household waste.
It has been estimated that the carbon reduction impact of a food waste collection service, in Sheffield, would be negligible, and even possibly negative, if there was no food waste processing facility in the Sheffield area.
The costs of new collection vehicles and bins would not be covered by the Government’s ‘New Burdens’ funding due to the Council’s existing contract with Veolia who burn food waste to generate heat and power. The Council had allocated £3 million towards delivering food waste collections but this is regarded as insufficient to deliver the service costs.
Councillor Alexi Dimond said,
“In the Sheffield context, the environmental benefits of the Government’s Food Waste collection legislation are highly dubious with high costs and low carbon savings. In part this is due to the private contract with Veolia which the Lib Dems and Labour supported and which runs until 2038. Thanks to the committee’s decision – although opposed by the Lib Dems – £3 million the Council had allocated for this scheme can now be more effectively used on other carbon reduction projects.
“We have a highly effective Sustainability Team in the Council who help us draw in external funding for projects that help to reduce carbon emissions and energy costs for the Council. Ensuring they have a long term future in the Council has to be a priority.
“The committee voted to consider more effective alternatives to food waste collection such as supporting home and community composting of food waste, provision of wormeries, hot bins and bokashi composters.
“It is important that funding for carbon reduction measures is not wasted and that high impact, cost effective proposals are what the Council backs, not the greenwashing, food waste collections being proposed by the Government and supported by Lib Dems for the purposes of political point scoring”.
References
(Public Pack)Agenda Document for Waste & Street Scene Policy Committee, 15/11/2023 10:00 (sheffield.gov.uk)
