Mott MacDonald currently supports Norfolk County Council’s Planning and Transportation Department through a ten year strategic partnership with an aim to enhance the council’s delivery of best value providing professional engineering, design, transportation and planning consultancy services.

As part of our provision of key design skills to all sections of the planning and transportation department, we provide technical and specialist advice to the environment and waste team in the areas of waste management planning, policy, procurement and infrastructure provision.

Projects
We have successfully delivered numerous waste projects for the county council. These have ranged from data collection on waste arisings to procurement advice on the implementation of new disposal technologies.

The following projects highlight some of the key areas where Mott MacDonald has provided specialist resource on waste projects.

Waste arisings data collection
We collected waste arisings data on behalf of Norfolk County Council; who are in partnership with the seven Norfolk waste collection authorities committed to a second generation local public service agreement (LPSA) with government.

Within this the agreed target under the waste theme is to reduce total household waste arisings, as defined under current local government (best value) performance indicator 84 (BVPI 84), to 2002/03 levels by 2006/07, thus achieving zero growth over this period in waste generation.

Household Waste Recycling Centres
We have undertaken a review and comparison of a proposed new contract for the management and operation of Norfolk’s household waste recycling centres; this was with the aim of introducing a new recycling centre contract to:

• improve customer service through more face-to-face contact with the public
• provide more education and guidance
• expand the range of recyclable materials handled, leading to improved recycling rates within the county

It was recognised that these factors would have cost impacts and Mott MacDonald also assessed these, recommending further options for consideration by the council to meet the aims listed.

We are providing the conceptual and detailed design for new household waste recycling centres within the county which again looked to improve the customer service though new and improved layouts. These new sites are being designed to cater for housing growth over the next 15-20 years.

Disposal Method: Technical and Procurement Advice
The EU Landfill Directive requires that biodegradable municipal wastes (BMW) be diverted from landfill. The responsibility for diverting this waste within Norfolk lies with the county council. Various options are available for the treatment/re-use and recovery of this waste. We have provided technical expertise and critical analysis on which disposal methods could be implemented for the county. This has also incorporated proposed methods for the funding of any potential schemes including a method which if successful would have been the first of its kind anywhere in the UK.

Contractual opportunities
Combined with the technology for disposing of waste, a year long project investigated options for managing long term collection and disposal contracts under a single service. A key aspect of this work was to investigate whether efficiency savings could be realised in restructuring collection and disposal contracts. The provisional outputs have suggested potential savings of over 12% per annum could be achieved if such a scheme was implemented.

Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS)
When the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS) came into force on 1 April 2005 it was expected to have a significant impact on all of the waste disposal authorities. We constructed a strategy for Norfolk County Council to ensure that the region dealt effectively with the impact of LATS, both financially and legally.

The strategy we developed sought to determine the infrastructure requirements at a regional/ and waste disposal authority level to cope with the impact of LATS, it identified the trading mechanism and potential volumes of trading required to meet targets; whilst projecting the likely impact of LATS in the region up to and beyond 2010.

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)
In January 2007 the WEEE regulations came into force in the UK and although no obligations fell onto local authorities it was recognised that the current waste management infrastructure could be utilised to comply with the European Directive. We produced recommendations for Norfolk County Council into the implications of accepting waste electrical and electronic equipment at existing recycling centres and civic amenity sites and the potential impact on waste management licensing as well as capacity concerns at the existing sites.

Waste and Minerals Plan
As part of the Norfolk County Council Partnership we have also been working to identify potentially suitable sites for residual waste treatment facilities for inclusion in the emerging Norfolk minerals and waste local development framework.

A cross departmental team was established with representatives from Mott MacDonald as well as the waste management and highways control departments within the council to identify potential sites.

A report was prepared to assist Norfolk County Council’s waste management team, outlining the approach and methodology taken and also the identification of potential options for waste management site development across the county.

These potential sites are to be assessed to determine their inclusion within the Norfolk minerals and waste local development framework. The waste allocations development plan document will identify specific areas of land that are suitable, in principle, for waste development.