Newcastle City Council Municipal Waste Management and
the One Core Strategy Position Statement
1. Introduction
This position statement reviews the management of municipal waste in Newcastle
upon Tyne. It provides the link between the Council’s Municipal Waste Management
Strategy (MWMS) and the growth proposed in its Local Development Framework
(LDF). This is required by National Planning Policy Statement 10 (PPS 10) Planning
for Sustainable Waste Management.
The statement demonstrates how municipal waste management arrangements from
2012 to 2024 will be able to support the increased number of houses forecasted by
the LDF over this 12 year timeframe. In addition it also sets out the approach to how
sustainable waste management will be secured post 2024 and beyond the LDF plan
period till 2030.
The statement should be viewed as a ‘living’ draft, correct as of September 2011, it
will be reviewed and updated as required to support the Submission Draft of the One
Core Strategy expected in 2012.
2. Background
PPS 10 requires that the LDF should both inform and in turn be informed by any
relevant municipal waste management strategies. This statement aims to assist in
demonstrating this requirement has been met.
Position statement to support the NewcastleGateshead One Core Strategy 2030 September 2011
Newcastle City Council Municipal Waste Management and One Core Strategy Position Statement
Waste management is fundamental to the delivery of sustainable communities.
Under Newcastle upon Tyne’s emerging LDF, there is a need to ensure planned
provision of sites and contractual arrangements to manage the waste to meet the
needs of the City over the plan period to 2030. Forecasted population rises and an
increased number dwellings and households needs to be factored into future
municipal waste arisings and the Council’s MWMS to ensure the Council is able to
fulfill its duties. The future land use requirements, such as possible new or expanded
facilities need to be translated and made provision for in the Council’s LDF, more
specifically the One Core Strategy Development Plan Document (DPD).
3. Trends in waste generation
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) consists of household waste (wheeled bins) and
waste received at Household Waste Sites, but also includes street cleansing waste
and waste resulting from the clearance of fly tipped material. The City Council (the
Waste Planning Authority) has a statutory responsibility to collect and dispose of this
waste. It is also obliged to collect commercial and industrial (C&I) waste from the
private sector but only on request. Currently the WPA collects 30,000 tonnes of C&I,
this is just under 20% of the total MSW arisings.
However, it should be noted that arisings are influenced by a number of variable
factors including; changes in household numbers (new houses built), changes in
population, numbers of people per household, changes within the economy, the
climate in a given year and changes to the services provided (e.g new collection for
green waste that would potentially not be collected).
Arisings in Newcastle have fallen year on year from a peak of 185,000 t in 2004/05
to 155,000 t in 2010/11, a total decline of over 16%. An element of this reduction is
down to changes in consumer behaviour, including increased recycling rates. It is
important to note that in this same period however, both the population and number
of households have increased.
It is therefore extremely difficult to quantify the
overall impact of waste minimisation initiatives. While these have clearly had an
impact, it is also important to note that the economic downturn experienced over
recent years has been influential in reducing the waste stream.
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Newcastle City Council Municipal Waste Management and One Core Strategy Position Statement
Population forecasts produced based on ONS data have informed the growth
assumptions in the Councils’ LDF and have predicted an increase in population and
number of households in Newcastle. By 2030 the population is expected to be at
321,300 with an additional 18, 6779 (net) houses built. If this is to be achieved and
sustained then it is reasonable to also assume that there will be an increase in waste
arisings over that period. Phasing of the planned growth will enable more accurate
forecasts of increases in future arisings, as outlined below.
4. Municipal Waste Arisings
In 2009/10 Newcastle City Council generated a total of just under 158,000 tonnes of
municipal solid waste. MSW arisings had been decreasing, at ‘mean’ average rate of
3% per annum, over the period 2005/6 to 09/10. Over the same 5 year period the
population and number of households within the city has increased annual by 1.4%
and 0.3% respectively. This indicates that despite a growth population total arisings
have continued to decline, this trend will need be considered when predicted future
arisings.
The percentage of MSW waste recycled and composted in the same period has
increased from 15.39 to 40.87%, although landfill remained a significant means of
dealing with waste. The considerable increase in recycling and composting has been
attributed to successful initiatives and a change in resident behaviors. The Council’s
MWMS sets a target of 50% of households waste to be recycled and the current
increasing rate is expected to continue but not at the rate of previous years.
Table 4.1 (over page) compares the past MSW arisings with the change in
population and net housing completions over the same period.
Table 4.2 (over
page) follows with a breakdown of the current MSW treatment arrangement for the
year 09/10.
Within Newcastle upon Tyne there is the licensed capacity to process up to 185,000
tonnes of municipal waste per annum. This comprises of 150,000 tonnes of licensed
capacity at the Newcastle Resource Recycling Centre at Byker and the 35,000
tonnes of licensed capacity at Benwell Transfer facility.
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Newcastle City Council Municipal Waste Management and One Core Strategy Position Statement
Table 4.1 Previous MSW Arisings (tonnes)
Year
Total MSW
Percentage
Net housing
Percent
Arising (t)
change
per annum
Change
Population Population
Change
Change
(%)
2004/5
185,000
---
411
+0.34%
+3,400
+1.26%
+2005/6
182,000
-1.6 %
701
+0.58%
+1,600
+0.59%
2006/7
177,000
-2.7 %
473
+0.39%
+1,400
+0.51%
2007/8
171,500
-3.1 %
409
+0.33%
+2,200
+0.80%
2008/9
163,000
-5%
194
+0.16%
+6,500
+2.34%
2009/10
158,000
-3.1%
16
+0.01%
+7,900
+2.78%
Table 4.2 Breakdown of Municipal Solid Waste Arisings in Newcastle upon Tyne 09/10 (tonnes)
Treatment
2009/10 (t)
% of total waste stream
Front-end recycling
36,500
23.2
NRFs
6,000
3.8
Compost and
22,000
14
93,000
59
157, 500
100
processes and losses,
metals
Landfill
Total
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Newcastle City Council Municipal Waste Management and One Core Strategy Position Statement
4.1 Predicted Waste Arisings
The Council’s MSW projections were calculated by determining arisings per head of
population and forecasted population additions going forward. The forecast of the
total MSW arisings have been disaggregated to each treatment process in Table 4.4.
Table 4.3 MSW Projections and capacity to 2030 (tonnes per annum)
(Including population forecasts from the One Core Strategy)
2010
2015
2020
2025
2030
Forecasted total
population
292,000 299,100 304,600 312,200 321,300
% Growth
2.43%
1.84%
2.50%
2.91%
Total potential MSW
arisings
158,000 161,842 164,818 168,930 173,854
Newcastle MSW
capacity gap
+27,000 +23,158 +20,182 +16,070 +11,146
Table 4.4 MSW Treatment Projections 2030 (tonnes per annum)
(Including population forecasts from the One Core Strategy and proposal for waste management post
2012)
2010
2015
2020
2025
2030
2.43%
1.84%
2.50%
2.91%
36,500
37,387
38,075
39,027
40,162
6,500
12,720
12,720
22,000
25,431
25,431
Fuel
41,621
41,621
Energy from
26,551
% Growth
Front -end
Recycling
Recycling at
transfer
facilities/NRFs
Compost and
process losses,
metals
Refuse Derived
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Newcastle City Council Municipal Waste Management and One Core Strategy Position Statement
waste
New
contractual
arrangements
26,551 106,323 106,323
Landfill
93,000
18,129
20,419
23,588
27,368
Total potential
waste arisings
158,000 161,839 164,817 168,938 173,854
5. Existing municipal waste management arrangements (up to 2012)
The existing facilities within Newcastle upon Tyne for municipal waste transfer and
processing comprise of the following:
•
Newcastle Resource Recycling Centre (MBT and waste transfer), Walker
Road, Byker;
•
Benwell Waste Transfer Station, Scotswood Road;
•
Household waste recovery centres, Brunswick, Byker and Walbottle
•
Composting plant, Sandhills, Walbottle
•
Landfill (Seghill, Northumberland and Path Head, Gatehead).
At present residual Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) arising in Newcastle and collected
by the Council is sent to the Newcastle Resource Recycling Centre and Benwell
Waste Transfer Station for processing through a Mechanical and Biological
Treatment (MBT) Plant or transfer to landfill after a proportion of materials are
recovered. The MBT process at the Newcastle Waste Recovery Centre extracts
metals for recycling and organic materials for In-Vessel Composting (IVC) at a plant
in Ellington, Northumberland. The residual waste from these processes and from the
Transfer Stations goes to either landfill in Northumberland/Gateshead or thermal
treatment on Teesside or beyond.
It should be noted that there are no landfill facilities within the City, currently circa
45,000 tonnes of MSW are landfilled at the Seghill, Northumberland and Path Head
in Gateshead. Current contractual arrangements allow for the continuing of waste to
be sent to these facilities to 2012 and 2017 respectively. For capacity beyond these
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Newcastle City Council Municipal Waste Management and One Core Strategy Position Statement
dates will be secured via procurement. It is known that the Ellington landfill facility
within the region has capacity up to 2039.
Currently a total of 158,000 tonnes* of MSW is collected per annum by the Council,
with a total 64,500 tonnes being diverted from landfill. From MSW arising 36,500
tonnes is managed by ‘front-end’ recycling, whilst the remaining 121,500 tonnes is
sent to either the Newcastle Resource Recycling Centre or at Benwell Waste
Transfer Station to be processed as described above and quantified in Table 5.1.
Table 5.1 Existing Municipal Waste Management Arrangement
Proportion Treatment
End destination
38,500
Sandhills for green
Front- end Recycling
Total 158,000 *
waste, O’Briens
tonnes of MSW
Wallsend for dry
arising
recyclables,
various other local
outlets for
remainder.
20,500
Compost, process
SITA internal
losses and Metals
market for
compost, metals
to market
15,000
RDF Trial
CHP in
Scandinavia
84,000**
Landfill
Gateshead,
Northumberland
* Figures based on 2009/10 arisings, capacity is 185,000t
**this is a balancing figure from 158,000t starting point
6. Future municipal waste management arrangements (2012- 2024)
The Council is currently addressing how MSW will be dealt with in the future. This
includes discussions with a current private sector provider (SITA UK) who have a
long term contract with the Council up until 2024. This is currently being reviewed
with a view to improving current landfill diversion rates.
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Newcastle City Council Municipal Waste Management and One Core Strategy Position Statement
This will require a variation on the existing contract, resulting in new contractual
arrangements for MSW management and will provide the mechanism for achieving
the aspirations of the Newcastle Waste Strategy.
The proposals combined with
front-end recycling initiatives in place, should result in landfill diversion of up to 80%
of the MSW arising.
Proposed treatments include;
•
Energy from Waste (EfW) at Teesside or beyond
•
Production of Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) from the MBT process at
Byker to be transported to Scandinavia in the first instance for use in
Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants
•
Development of a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) at the Transfer
Station in Benwell
To fulfil the proposed arrangement Benwell Transfer Station will be upgraded and
part of the site converted into a materials recovery facility which will be used to
extract recyclable material from bulky collection, fly tipping and household clearance.
No additional facilities will be required to aid collection and transfer up to 2024. The
total licensed capacity of 185, 000 tonnes at the Benwell and Byker will remain
sufficient to deal with waste arising.
The Energy from Waste (EfW) contract at Teesside will run until 2016.
A
procurement will therefore be needed around about 2014 to replace this
arrangement when it expires. Due to the limited size of the expected tonnage, no
new facility will need to be provided.
It should be noted to meet the requirements of PPS10, an interim waste site
appraisal assessment has been undertaken which will be subsumed into the
Council’s Employment Land Review. The technical assessment sought to identify
sites with the potential for being suitable to host a waste management facility. A total
of seven sites, across the city, were shortlisted as being potentially suitable, this
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Newcastle City Council Municipal Waste Management and One Core Strategy Position Statement
included the sites hosting the resource recycling and transfer facilities at Byker and
Benwell which are being taken forward in the 2012-2024 arrangements.
Table 6.1 Summary of Municipal Waste Management Arrangement 2012-2024
Proportion
Treatment
End destination
36, 500 t
Front –end recycling
Sandhills for green
Total 158,000 *
waste, O’Briens
tonnes of MSW
Wallsend for dry
arising
recyclables, various
other local outlets
for remainder.
12,720 t
Recycling at Benwell
Subject to market
transfer site
14,177 t
Landfill
Gateshead,
Northumberland
26,551 t
Energy from Waste
Teeside
19,778 t
Composting and
SITA internal market
process losses
for compost to
market
41,621 t
Refused Derived Fuel
Teeside
5,653 t
Metals and process
SITA internal market
losses
for metals to market
* Figures based on 2009/10 arisings
7. Local Development Framework
7.1 Accommodating LDF forecasted growth
Over the lifetime of the One Core Strategy the population of Newcastle is forecasted
to increase by 29,100 to a total of 321,300, this result in an additional 18,679
dwellings resulting in an additional 18,962 households (as per Table 7.1, over page).
The projected phasing of which is as below and has been included in the MSW
arisings in Table 4.3.
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Newcastle City Council Municipal Waste Management and One Core Strategy Position Statement
The Newcastle Recovery Recycling Centre and the Benwell Transfer are licensed to
accept and have the capacity to process 150,000 and 35,000 tonnes per annum
respectively, therefore totally 185,000 tonnes per annum. Table 4.2 demonstrates
that as projected future MWS arisings increase taking in account growth up to 2024,
the overall capacity of 185,000 tonnes will remain sufficient to accommodate future
increases.
While no additional facilities are required to aid collection or the transfer of waste till
2024, to accommodate new households completed within the plan period there will
be additional refuse collections required. Approximately 7,000 households equates
to one collection round under current methodology, therefore the planned growth will
mean at least two more collection rounds for domestic waste with additional
resources also being needed for recycling collections will be need by 2030.
Table 4.3 sets the projected future MSW arising for Newcastle, based on the
forecasted housing growth (the preferred housing growth scenario) in Table 7.1
which shows a continued increase in expected arisings.
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Newcastle City Council Municipal Waste Management and One Core Strategy Position Statement
Table 7.1 Forecasted housing (trajectory) growth to 2030
2010
2015
2020
2025
2030
Number of new dwelling completed, net
(per 5 years)
----
3,719
4,692
5,117
5,151
122,576
126,295
130,987
136,104
141,255
----
3.03%
3.7%
3.9%
3.7%
118,055
122,507
127,057
132,021
137,017
----
3.7%
3.7%
3.9%
3.6%
292,200
299,100
304,600
312,200
321,300
Total number of dwellings within the City
Percentage growth in dwelling
Total Number of households
Percentage growth in households
Forecasted total Population
NB Figures provided are the preferred growth scenario for the One Core Strategy.
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Newcastle City Council Municipal Waste Management and One Core Strategy Position Statement
7.2 Municipal Waste and the Local Development Framework
In accordance with PPS 10 and reflecting local circumstances the Local
Development Framework in relation to MSW management, aims to;
1. Set a strategic spatial policy for sustainable waste management.
The One Core Strategy will seek to contribute to climate change mitigation and the
reduction of carbon emissions by applying the waste hierarchy of prevention,
preparing for re-use, recycling, other recovery and safe disposal. Waste will be
addressed as a resource and disposed of as the last resort.
2. Identify the strategic sites for the management of MSW.
The strategic waste management facilities for dealing with the city’s municipal waste
are identified on the Waste Key Diagram, as part of Policy CS 23 of the One Core
Strategy.
3. Safeguard strategic sites throughout the plan period central to the delivery of the
present and 2021-2024 contracts for waste facilities unless provision is made for
managing waste at an alternative site/s within the plan period.
The safeguarding of these sites will provide security that site will be suitable for
waste management post 2024.
8. Approach to post 2024 arrangements
Newcastle City Council will be considering its future Waste Strategy from 2015
onwards, and this will result in a procurement exercise in the financial year 2016/17.
If technology or market availability becomes available prior to this a decision may be
taken to accelerate the procurement.
9. Conclusion
This statement has been produced to support the One Core Strategy. It has
reviewed the amount of householder currently produced and the amount expected in
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Newcastle City Council Municipal Waste Management and One Core Strategy Position Statement
the future. Through factoring in planned growth (additional households) the Council
will be able to forward plan to manage its municipal waste sustainably in accordance
with the commitments in its Municipal Waste Management Strategy.
Due to the lack of certainty in predicting waste arisings in the future and the previous
trend of decline in waste produced despite increases in the population, a simple
calculation was undertaken to forecast waste arising within the plan period. The
figures produced effectively created a ‘worse case’ scenario, where the amount per
population head remained the same and the level of recycling remained at 2009/10
baseline levels rather than increased as per the MSWM targets.
The growth scenario, based on population increase showed continuing growth in
waste arisings, up to a figure of 173,854 tonnes per annum in 2030. This figure is
within the existing capacity of 185,000 tonnes and therefore it is reasonable to
conclude that growth in the LDF plan period can be accommodated.
MSW arisings beyond 2030, when the existing capacity gap is likely to be reached if
the growth scenario continues, will be reviewed in 2016/17 as the Council reviews its
contracts post 2024. It will be at this point the Council will assess capacity and work
to secure future capacity to meet arising post 2024.
The Council will be consolidating and updating its existing Municipal Waste
Management Strategy, providing further details on how it will be achieved. This will
begin once the procurement arrangements for 2012 to 2024 have been finalised.
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