Summary of Barnsley, Doncaster & Rotherham Joint Waste Plan
The Joint Waste Plan contains the following.
- Chapter 1: Introduction and background: This explains the nature and role of the Joint Waste Plan and how it relates to other relevant plans and strategies.
- Chapter 2: Issues and challenges: This provides a summary of main issues and challenges facing Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham boroughs relating to waste management.
- Chapter 3: Core approach: This explains how we will plan for the provision and delivery of waste facilities, over the next 15 years, including the vision, aims and overall strategy for achieving sustainable waste management within Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham.
- Chapter 4: Detailed policies: This identifes the new and existing sites that will accommodate waste facilities and the detailed planning considerations that will inform future waste management proposals. This chapter also explains how we will implement and monitor these policies.
- Chapter 5: Appendices: These explain various issues in more detail, including a glossary of key terms, maps of the sites identified in the plan and a summary of the policies that will replace existing waste policies.
Waste management - the way in which waste is collected, treated and disposed of - is one of our most pressing issues. In recent years, we have collectively produced up to four million tonnes of waste each year - enough to fill Wembley stadium twice over. Much of this waste has been buried in landfill sites. As the waste decomposes (or rots), it releases harmful greenhouse gases and chemicals (e.g. methane and carbon dioxide) into the atmosphere which contribute to climate change. As landfill is becoming increasingly expensive and scarce, we urgently need to develop new technologies and alternative solutions to manage waste in a way that reduces emissions, conserves or produces new resources and protects or enhances the quality of the environment. Waste production has increased in some years - in part due to population and household growth, changing lifestyles and rising levels of consumption - but is currently showing some decline due to waste minimisation initiatives, but also the economic recession.
However, we still face a shortage of suitable recycling and treatment facilities to divert waste from landfill. This means that waste is often transferred over longer distances beyond our boundaries.
In order to address these future challenges, the three councils of Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham have prepared a detailed plan to guide and manage future waste provision across the boroughs over the next 15 years, known as the Joint Waste Plan. This includes waste from industrial and business sources, construction and demolition activities, agricultural processes, as well as waste from households.
The key aspects of the overall strategy for the Joint Waste Plan are as follows.
Most waste will be managed within our boundaries at the nearest appropriate location in the following order of priority: prevention, re-use, recycling, recovery and disposal. However, waste could be imported or exported where it represents the most sustainable option (e.g. minimises transport miles, reduces waste movements or requires specialist treatment).
A well planned and integrated network of waste facilities will be developed across the three boroughs to manage over one million tonnes of municipal, commercial and industrial waste per annum. To achieve this, we will:
- allocate new sites to manage waste by other means other than landfill and secure the necessary capacity over the plan period;
- safeguard existing waste facilities of strategic importance such as recycling and treatment facilities, dredging sites and landfills (alternative uses such as offices and housing will not be allowed on these sites) to make sure sufficient capacity is available to meet current and future needs over the plan period; and
- set out criteria for assessing waste management proposals including those that come forward on other sites.
All new development (including waste facilities) will be expected to manage the waste it produces in a way that minimises resources and encourages on site recycling, recovery and storage.
The Joint Waste Plan is not specific about the mix and type of technologies that waste facilities could operate as these may change over time but identifies the processes that could manage waste as a means to encourage innovation.
In parallel with this process, we are working closely with the private sector to develop recycling and treatment facilities to manage the waste from your bins in line with the recycling, composting, recovery and landfill diversion targets from our separate municipal waste management strategies.