Councils unite to help the environment

As Powys and Ceredigion County Council’s embark implementing their improved waste and recycling collection services, plans are being made for a long term treatment solution for all of the region’s food waste.

“If food waste is buried in a landfill site, it rots down and produces methane, which is a greenhouse gas, 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide” explains Councillor Ray Quant, Chairman of the Mid Wales Waste Partnership.

“This is one of the reasons why it is so important to collect and treat it and why the Welsh Assembly Government has set very challenging targets for councils to reduce the amount of waste that is sent to landfill. Ceredigion and Powys County Councils will be under enormous pressure to meet these targets which come at a time of ever - tightening budgets”.

The food waste that is being collected from homes, schools and commercial premises across Ceredigion as part of the new “all sorted” kerbside recycling scheme is currently transported to a composting plant in Carmarthenshire.

Powys County Council currently sends any collected food waste for conversion to fertilizer. However both of these solutions are only short term and the councils need to find a long term treatment solution to the region’s food waste problem.

In response to these issues, Powys and Ceredigion have come together as the Mid Wales Waste Partnership, to find joint solutions to their shared problems, which will help the environment and reduce costs by pooling resources and sharing the financial burden.

The Mid Wales Waste Partnership now works formally through a Joint Committee which meets quarterly. Two Joint Committee meetings have taken place and the next one is due to take place in January 2011. The meetings are open to the public and everyone is welcome to attend.  For more information about the project, visit www.midwaleswaste.org.uk or www.gwastraffcanolbarthcymru.org.uk