West Sussex County Council: County Council set to sign biggest contract ever

Date: Feb 21, 2008

Press Release Number: PR2012

Press Release

West Sussex County Council will award the biggest contract in its history within the next 12 months as part of a continuing high priority drive to reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill.

This is confirmed by John de Mierre, Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, in the County Council’s Corporate Plan for 2008-09.

The contract will be for converting black bag rubbish, which cannot be recycled, into a resource, such as electricity or gas.

“This would be achieved by creating in West Sussex new treatment facilities using state of the art technology,” said John.

The contract is one of a number of far-reaching measures detailed by John in the Corporate Plan to ensure West Sussex remains a UK trailblazer when it comes to the three Rs: Recycling, Reducing and Re-using rubbish.

Other initiatives include:

ONE: Opening a new and innovative Materials Recycling Facility at Ford, near Littlehampton.

Work has already begun on the plant, which will include specialist equipment that can mechanically sort recyclables collected from homes, including glass, aerosol cans, Yellow Pages and beverage cartons, such as those made by Tetra pak, as well as plastic bottles, newspapers, cardboard and cans.

TWO: Launching in partnership with District and Borough Councils an independent, not for profit company, called For Better Tomorrows, that will aim to increase awareness of the three Rs in the community.

THREE: Continuing to develop waste prevention programmes, including:

· The award-winning real nappies scheme.
· Encouraging the use of home composting and food waste digesters.

FOUR: Improving joint working arrangements with District and Borough Councils to reduce costs to local taxpayers. This will include improving facilities to increase the re-using and recycling of materials collected by residents.

John added: “These measures reflect our determination to continue working with our district and borough council partners ensure West Sussex remains a UK trailblazer when it comes to recycling, re-using and reducing rubbish.”

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