Waste Management Needs Assessment - Cheshire East Management Needs Assessment ... Refuse collection tonnages, ... Forecast arisings and fate, low level radioactive wastes, ...

6 November 2014

Final Report

Waste Management Needs Assessment

For: Cheshire East Borough Council


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Report prepared for:

Cheshire East Borough Council

Prepared by:

Peter Scholes (Project Lead), Deborah Sacks (Sacks Consulting), Esther Areikin, Hannah Dick, Andrew

Hennig

Approved by:

Claudia Amos, Principal Consultant

Company details:

Company name and registered address:

LRS Consultancy Limited

107-111 Fleet Street

London

EC4A 2AB

Registered company number: 5853215

VAT number: 888370374

Contact details:

Peter Scholes

T: 01274 699400

E: [email protected]

www.lrsconsultancy.com

Disclaimer:

This report has been produced by LRS Consultancy (“LRS”) within the terms of the contract with the client and taking

account of the resources devoted to it by agreement with the client. LRS disclaims any responsibility to the client and

others in respect of any matters outside the scope of the above. LRS has taken due care in the preparation of this report to

ensure that all facts and analysis presented are as accurate as possible, within the scope of the project. However, no

guarantee is provided in respect of the information presented and LRS is not responsible for decisions or actions taken on

the basis of the content of this report. The information in this report is confidential to the client and we accept no

responsibility of whatsoever nature to third parties to whom this report, or any part thereof, is made known. Any such

party relies on the report at their own risk. We have not verified the completeness and/or accuracy of the information

contained in third party reports cited in this document or information gathered during the course of telephone

conversations and used in preparing this document other than as expressly set out in this document. We have used all

information provided to us by the client in the knowledge that we were provided with the information for the purpose of

the project.

http://www.lrsconsultancy.com/


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Document history

Document owner:

Peter Scholes, Principal Consultant, LRS Consultancy Limited.

Document location:

The electronic version of this document is located on the LRS server. Review copies of the current

version can be supplied upon request.

Revision and distribution history:

Version Revision date

Recipients Summary of changes

1.0 18-07-14 Jamie Longmire, Cheshire East Borough Council

First draft

1.1 26.09.14 Jamie Longmire, Cheshire East Borough Council

Changes made based upon feedback, including addition of glossary and added explanation on capacity gap and Duty to Cooperate

1.2 06.11.14 Emma Williams, Stuart Penny, Cheshire East Borough Council

Final text changes


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Table of contents

Document history .................................................................................................................................. iii

Table of contents ................................................................................................................................... iv

Table of figures ...................................................................................................................................... vi

Table of tables ....................................................................................................................................... vii

Abbreviations and Glossary ................................................................................................................... ix

1 Executive summary ......................................................................................................................... 1

2 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 13

Background ....................................................................................................................................... 13

Scope of this work ............................................................................................................................. 14

3 Policy Context ............................................................................................................................... 16

Revised European Waste Framework Directive 2008 and Review of Waste Policy ......................... 16

Localism Act 2011 ............................................................................................................................. 17

Regional Context ............................................................................................................................... 17

Local Context ..................................................................................................................................... 17

4 Waste Arisings Estimates .............................................................................................................. 18

Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 18

Local Authority Collected Waste (LACW) .......................................................................................... 19

What is this waste? ........................................................................................................................... 19

How much is produced? ................................................................................................................... 19

What happens to this waste? ........................................................................................................... 21

How much LACW is forecast to be produced in the future? ............................................................ 22

Commercial and Industrial Waste (C&I Waste) Arisings Forecasts .................................................. 26




How much C&I waste is forecast to be produced in the future? ..................................................... 30

Hazardous Waste Arisings Forecasts ................................................................................................ 32




How much hazardous waste is forecast to be produced in the future? .......................................... 33

Construction, Demolition and Excavation Wastes (CDEW) .............................................................. 34



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How much CDEW waste is forecast to be produced in the future? ................................................. 36

Agricultural Waste ............................................................................................................................ 36




How much agricultural waste is forecast to be produced in the future? ......................................... 38

Radioactive waste ............................................................................................................................. 38



How much LLW is forecast to be produced in the future? ............................................................... 40

Waste Arisings Summary .................................................................................................................. 40

5 Waste Management Capacity ....................................................................................................... 42

Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 42

Data Sources and Assumptions Made .............................................................................................. 42

Regional and Cheshire East Capacities ............................................................................................. 43

Landfill .............................................................................................................................................. 43

Incineration and Energy From Waste ............................................................................................... 46

Organic Waste Recycling (Composting, Anaerobic Digestion) ......................................................... 46

Material Recovery Facilities (MRF) ................................................................................................... 48

Transfer Stations ............................................................................................................................... 48

Other facility types ............................................................................................................................ 51

Exempt Sites ...................................................................................................................................... 52

Waste Movements ............................................................................................................................ 54

Capacity Summary and Forecasts ..................................................................................................... 56

6 Capacity Gap Analysis ................................................................................................................... 57

Capacity for Organic Waste Management ........................................................................................ 57

Capacity for Recycling ....................................................................................................................... 58

Capacity for Residual Waste Management ....................................................................................... 59

Construction, Demolition and Excavation Wastes ............................................................................ 64

Radioactive waste ............................................................................................................................. 64

7 Conclusions and Recommendations ............................................................................................. 65

References ............................................................................................................................................ 67

Appendix 1 – Commercial and Industrial Sectors and SIC codes .......................................................... 69


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Table of figures

Figure 1: Non-hazardous residual waste, Cheshire East arisings and capacity forecasts, 2012 - 2030

(tonnes) ........................................................................................................................................... 8

Figure 2: Residual waste recovery facilities (operating and planned) proximate to Cheshire East ....... 9

Figure 3: Historic pattern of Local Authority Collected Waste Arisings ................................................ 21

Figure 4: Cheshire East LACW Forecasts using various methodologies, 2014 to 2030 (in tonnes) ...... 24

Figure 5: Landfill Capacity in the North West England 2004-2012 (thousands of cubic metres) ......... 44

Figure 6: Potential Routes of Recycling ................................................................................................ 59


(tonnes) ......................................................................................................................................... 60

Figure 8: Residual waste recovery facilities (operating and planned) proximate to Cheshire East ..... 62


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Table of tables

Table 1: Summary of Arisings forecasts for Cheshire East by waste source, 2012 to 2030 (to nearest

1,000 tonnes) .................................................................................................................................. 4

Table 2: Summary of Capacity forecasts for Cheshire East by waste management type, 2012 to 2030

(to nearest 1,000 tonnes) – key capacities only ............................................................................. 4

Table 3: Organic waste, Cheshire East arisings and capacity forecasts, 2012 - 2030 (to nearest 1,000

tonnes) ............................................................................................................................................ 5

Table 4: Non-hazardous residual waste, Cheshire East arisings and capacity forecasts, 2012 - 2030 (to

nearest 1,000 tonnes) ..................................................................................................................... 7

Table 5: Household Waste Collection Quantities (in tonnes) for England (Source: WasteDataFlow) . 20

Table 6: Refuse collection tonnages, 2009-2013 (Source: Cheshire East Council) ............................... 21

Table 7: Destination LACW collected by CEBC ...................................................................................... 22

Table 8: Cheshire East LACW collections against population and number of households, 2009/10 to

2013/14 ......................................................................................................................................... 22

Table 9: Cheshire East LACW Forecasts using various methodologies, 2014 to 2030 (in tonnes) ....... 23

Table 10: Forecast Waste Arisings by Waste Management Method - using population growth model

...................................................................................................................................................... 25

Table 11: Forecast Waste Arisings by Waste Management Method - using housing growth model ... 25

Table 12: Forecast Waste Arisings by Waste Management Method - using historical trend data ...... 25

Table 13: Summary of C&I Waste arisings in Cheshire East by fate (to nearest 1,000 tonnes) ........... 28

Table 14: C&I waste arisings for North West England by sector and size, 2009 (tonnes, excluding

micro (0-4 employees) businesses) ............................................................................................... 29

Table 15: Summary of forecasts of C&I Waste arisings in Cheshire East (tonnes) ............................... 30

Table 16: Summary of forecasts of C&I Waste arisings in Cheshire East by waste management fate

(to nearest 1,000 tonnes) - baseline ............................................................................................. 31


(to nearest 1,000 tonnes) – increased recycling ........................................................................... 31

Table 18: Hazardous Waste Management 2012 (tonnes) .................................................................... 33

Table 19: Hazardous Waste Destination, 2012 ..................................................................................... 33

Table 20: Summary of forecasts of hazardous waste arisings in Cheshire East (to nearest 1,000

tonnes) .......................................................................................................................................... 34

Table 21: Waste Management method (Fate) of Chapter 17 Construction, demolition and excavation

waste, Cheshire East 2012 ............................................................................................................ 35

Table 22: Destination of Wastes originating in Cheshire East (2012) ................................................... 36

Table 23: Forecast arisings and waste management fate, for CDEW wastes, Cheshire East 2012 to

2030 (to nearest 1,000 tonnes) .................................................................................................... 36

Table 24: Waste Management method (Fate) agricultural waste, Cheshire East 2012 ....................... 38


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Table 25: Forecast arisings and fate, agricultural wastes, Cheshire East 2012 to 2030 (to nearest

1,000 tonnes) ................................................................................................................................ 38

Table 26: Forecast arisings and fate, low level radioactive wastes, Cheshire East 2012 to 2030 (to

nearest 1,000 tonnes) ................................................................................................................... 40

Table 27: LACW and C&I arisings forecasts for Cheshire East by waste management type, 2012 to

2030 (to nearest 1,000 tonnes) – minimum residual waste scenario .......................................... 41


2030 (to nearest 1,000 tonnes) – maximum residual waste scenario .......................................... 41

Table 29: Total Landfill Capacities (in cubic metres x 1,000) for the North West England region, as of

2012 (Source: Environment Agency) ............................................................................................ 43

Table 30: Landfill Void by Landfill facility type, Cheshire, 2012 (in cubic metres, Source: Environment

Agency).......................................................................................................................................... 45

Table 31: Operational Landfills, Cheshire East...................................................................................... 45

Table 32: Incineration capacity, 2012 (tonnes) .................................................................................... 46

Table 33: Organic Waste Processing Capacity, 2012 (tonnes) .............................................................. 47

Table 34: MRF capacity, 2012 (tonnes) ................................................................................................. 48

Table 35: Transfer Station Capacity, 2012 (tonnes) .............................................................................. 49

Table 36: Capacity, other facility types 2012 (tonnes) ......................................................................... 51

Table 37: Site Exemptions, Cheshire East (as number of sites) ............................................................ 52

Table 38: Destination of HIC Waste Generated in Cheshire East WPA, 2012 (source WDI) ................ 54

Table 39: Source of HIC Waste handled in Cheshire East WPA, 2012 (source WDI) ............................ 55

Table 40: Capacity forecasts for Cheshire East by waste management type, 2012 to 2030 (to nearest

1,000 tonnes) ................................................................................................................................ 56

Table 41: Organic waste, Cheshire East arisings and capacity forecasts, 2012 - 2030 (to nearest 1,000

tonnes) .......................................................................................................................................... 57

Table 42: Non-hazardous residual waste, Cheshire East arisings and capacity forecasts, 2012 - 2030

(to nearest 1,000 tonnes) ............................................................................................................. 60

Table 43: Residual Waste Recovery Facilities that could accommodate waste from Cheshire East,

subject to agreement (operating, in construction and planned).................................................. 61

Table 44: Significant Landfill Sites in proximity to Cheshire East ......................................................... 63


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Abbreviations and Glossary

Abbreviations

AD Anaerobic Digestion

C&I Commercial and Industrial Waste

CDEW Construction, Demolition and Excavation

CHP Combined Heat and Power

CLG Department for Communities and Local Government

CLO Compost Like Output

Defra Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

EA Environment Agency

ECC Essex County Council

ELV End of Life Vehicles

ILW Intermediate Radioactive Waste

IVC In Vessel Composting

IWMF Integrated Waste Management Facility

Ktpa Kilo [Thousand] Tonnes Per Annum

LACW Local Authority Collected Waste

LLW Low Level Radioactive Waste

MBT Mechanical, Biological &/or Thermal Treatment

MRF Materials Recycling Facility

MSW Municipal Solid Waste

RSS Regional Spatial Strategy

SNRHW Stabilised Non-Reactive Hazardous Waste

SRF Solid Recovered Fuel

VLLW Very Low Level Radioactive Waste

WCA Waste Collection Authority

WDA Waste Disposal Authority

WDD Waste Development Document

WEEE Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment

WLP Waste Local Plan


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WPA Waste Planning Authority

WSE 2007 Waste Strategy for England 2007

Glossary

Aggregate Recycling

The process (crushing and sorting) by which aggregates comprising waste materials (for example, damaged bricks, broken concrete, brickwork, masonry and tarmac) from roads, construction and demolition sites are recycled. Recycled products can include manufactured materials such as concrete, brick, plasterboard and ceramic articles.

Aerobic Digestion Biological treatment of biodegradable organic waste in the presence of oxygen, producing a residue suitable for use as a soil improver.

Agricultural Waste Waste from a farm or market garden, consisting of matter such as manure, slurry and crop residues.

Anaerobic Digestion

Organic matter broken down by bacteria in the absence of air, producing a gas (methane) and solid (digestate). The by-products can be useful, for example biogas can be used in a furnace, gas engine, turbine or gas-powered vehicles, and digestates can be re-used on farms as a fertiliser

Annual Monitoring Report (AMR)

A report submitted to the Government by local planning authorities assessing progress with and the effectiveness of a Local Development Framework.

Becquerel (Bq)

This is the standard international unit of radioactivity equal to one radioactive disintegration per second. Multiples of Bq commonly used are:

kilobecquerels (kBq) equal to one thousand; megabecquerels (MBq) equal to one million; gigabecquerels (GBq) equal to one thousand million.

Biodegradable waste Waste that is capable of breaking down naturally, such as food, garden waste and paper.

Biological Treatment Any biodegradable (breaking down) process that changes the properties of waste, such as anaerobic digestion and composting.

Bring systems (public recycling facilities)

Recycling schemes where the public deliver their recyclables to a central collection point, such as those in supermarket car parks for bottles and cans.

Bulky Goods Goods of a large physical nature (for example DIY, furniture, carpets) that sometimes require large areas for storage or display.

Civic Amenity Site A facility provided by the Waste Disposal Authority that is available to the public to deposit waste which cannot be collected by the normal household waste collection round.

Combined Heat and Power (CHP)

The combined production of heat, usually in the form of steam, and power, usually in the form of electricity.

Commercial Waste Controlled waste arising from trade premises.

Construction and Demolition Waste

Controlled waste arising from the construction, repair, maintenance and demolition of buildings and structures.


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DEFRA – Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Defra is a UK Government department. Its mission is to enable everyone to live within our environmental means. This is most clearly exemplified by the need to tackle climate change internationally, through domestic action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and to secure a healthy and diverse natural environment.

Development Plan

A document setting out the local planning authority's policies and proposals for the development and use of land and buildings in the authority's area. This includes adopted Local Plans, neighbourhood plans and the London Plan, and is defined in section 38 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004.

Energy from Waste The conversion of waste into a useable form of energy, often heat or electricity.

Environment Agency

A government body that aims to prevent or minimise the effects of pollution on the environment and issues permits to monitor and control activities that handle or produce waste. It also provides up-to-date information on waste management matters and deals with other matters such as water issues including flood protection advice.

Fly tipping The illegal disposal of waste on land.

Gasification and Pyrolysis (Advanced Thermal Treatment)

A means of recovering energy from waste, known as advanced thermal treatment. Waste is heated at high temperatures and a useable gas is produced.

Green waste Biodegradable plant waste from gardening and landscaping activities. This can be composed of garden or park waste, such as grass or flower cuttings and hedge trimmings, as well as domestic and commercial food waste.

Hazardous Landfill Sites where hazardous waste is landfilled. This can be a dedicated site or a single cell within a non-hazardous landfill, which has been specifically designed and designated for depositing hazardous waste.

Hazardous Treatment Sites where hazardous waste is treated so that it can be landfilled.

Hazardous Waste

Waste that poses substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment (when improperly treated, stored, transported or disposed). This can be due to the quantity, concentration, or characteristics of the waste.

Household Waste

Refuse from household collection rounds, waste from street sweepings, public litter bins, bulky items collected from households and wastes which householders themselves take to household waste recovery centres and "bring sites".

Household Waste Recovery Centres / Civic Amenity Sites

A facility provided by the Waste Disposal Authority that is available to the public to deposit waste which cannot be collected by the normal household waste collection round.

Incineration The controlled burning of waste. Energy may also be recovered in the form of heat (see Energy from Waste).

Industrial Waste Waste from a factory or industrial process.

Inert waste Waste not undergoing significant physical, chemical or biological changes following disposal, as it does not adversely affect other matter that it may come into contact with, and does not endanger surface or groundwater.

Inert Landfill A landfill site that is licensed to accept inert waste for disposal.


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In Vessel Composting

A system that ensures composting place in an enclosed but aerobic environment, with accurate temperature control and monitoring. There are many different systems, but they can be broadly categorised into six types: containers, silos, agitated bays, tunnels, rotating drums and enclosed halls.

ILW - Intermediate level waste

Radioactive wastes exceeding the upper activity boundaries for LLW but which do not need heat to be taken into account in the design of storage or disposal facilities.

Kerbside Collection The collection by local authorities of recyclable goods directly from households, or occasionally industrial and commercial premises.

Landfill (including land raising)

The permanent disposal of waste into the ground, by the filling of man-made voids or similar features, or the construction of landforms above ground level (land-raising).

Landfill Directive European Union requirements on landfill to ensure high standards for disposal and to stimulate waste minimisation.

Leachate (usually associated with landfill)

Water coming into contact with decomposing waste materials and which has drawn pollutants out of those materials into solution thereby contaminating the water.

LLW – low level waste

Lightly contaminated miscellaneous scrap, including metals, soil, building rubble, paper towels, clothing and laboratory equipment.

Materials Recycling Facility (MRF)

A facility for sorting and packing recyclable waste.

Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT)

The treatment of residual waste using a combination of mechanical separation and biological treatment.

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)

Household waste and any other waste collected by a waste collection authority such as municipal parks and gardens waste, beach cleansing waste and waste resulting from the clearance of fly-tipped materials.

NDA – Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

The NDA is a non-departmental public body with designated responsibility for managing the liabilities at specific sites.

Non Hazardous Landfill

A landfill which is licensed to accept non-inert (biodegradable) wastes e.g. municipal and commercial and industrial waste and other non-hazardous wastes (including inert) that meet the relevant waste acceptance criteria.

Non Inert Waste that is potentially biodegradable or may undergo significant physical, chemical or biological change once landfilled.

Non Operational Facility with Planning Permission

A waste facility that has obtained planning permission, which is yet to expire and therefore has ‘potential’ planned capacity.

Non Operational Facility

A facility which is currently non-operational and does not have potential capacity for processing waste (such as a facility where planning permission has expired).

Open Windrow Composting

A managed biological process in which biodegradable waste (such as green waste and kitchen waste) is broken down in an open air environment (aerobic conditions) by naturally occurring micro-organisms to produce a stabilised residue.

Operational Facility A waste facility which is currently operating in the Plan Area.


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Pollution Prevention and Control / Integrated Pollution Control

A system of regulations and permit regime designed to prevent or reduce pollution.

Proximity Principle Requires that waste should be managed as near as possible to its place of production, reducing travel impacts.

Recovery Value can be recovered from waste by recovering materials through recycling, composting or recovery of energy.

Recycled Aggregates Aggregates produced from recycled construction waste such as crushed concrete and planings from tarmac roads.

Recycling The reprocessing of waste either into the same product or a different one.

Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF)

A fuel product produced from the combustible fraction of waste.

Residual Waste Waste remaining after materials for re-use, recycling and composting have been removed.

Resolution to approve planning permissions

A committee resolution to grant planning permission has been issued, pending legal matters.

Resolution to approve subject to legal S106 agreements

A committee resolution to grant planning permission has been issued, pending completion of a Section 106 agreement

Section 106 agreement

Section 106 (S106) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 allows Local Planning Authorities (LPA) to enter a legally-binding agreement or planning obligation with a landowner in association with the granting of planning permission. These address matters necessary to make developments acceptable in planning terms.

Waste Collection Authority (WCA)

A local authority that has a duty to collect household waste. They also have a duty to collect commercial waste if requested to do so and may also collect industrial waste. (The waste collection authority may differ from the waste disposal authority).

Waste Disposal Authority (WDA)

A local authority responsible for managing the waste collected by the collection authorities and the provision of household waste recovery centres.

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)

Sites for the depollution, disassembly, shredding, recovery or preparation for disposal, and any other operation carried out for the recovery or disposal of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment.

Waste Hierarchy

A framework for securing a sustainable approach to waste management. Waste should be minimised wherever possible. If waste cannot be avoided, then it should be re-used; after this it should be prepared for recycling, value recovered by recycling or composting or waste to energy; and finally disposal.

Waste Local Plan A statutory development plan prepared (or saved) by the waste planning authority under transitional arrangements, setting out polices in relation to waste management and related developments.

Waste Minimisation / Reduction

The most desirable way of managing waste, by avoiding the production of waste in the first place.

Waste Planning Authority (WPA)

The local authority responsible for waste development planning and control. They are unitary authorities, including National Park Authorities,


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and county councils in two-tier areas.

Waste Regulation Authority

The Environment Agency has responsibility for authorising waste management licences for disposal facilities, and for monitoring sites.

Waste Transfer Station

A site to which waste is delivered for sorting or baling prior to transfer to another place for recycling, treatment or disposal.

Sources: Planning Portal, SEPA, other


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1 Executive summary

1.1 Each Waste Planning Authority (WPA) in the UK has an obligation to plan for sustainable

waste management. Cheshire East Council is therefore expected to produce a Waste Plan in

accordance with the Waste Framework Directive 2008 and UK waste policy including the

Waste Management Plan for England 2013. Cheshire East became a unitary authority in 2009

and the Cheshire East Local Plan is currently under preparation. This Local Plan will set out the

strategy for future development of the plan area and will consist of three main elements:

1. The Local Plan Strategy which sets out the overall vision and planning strategy for

development in the Borough. It also identifies strategic sites and strategic locations

that will accommodate most of the new development needed. This document was

submitted to the Secretary of State in May 2014.

2. The Site Allocations and Development Policies Document, which will allocate the

remaining sites needed for future development and set out detailed planning policies

to be used when considering planning applications.

3. The Waste Development Plan Document, which will set out policies for dealing with

waste and identify sites for waste management facilities.

1.2 Further work is therefore now needed to update the projections in light of the more up-

to-date baseline information becoming available and to ensure the forecasts cover the same

time period as the local development documents that are being prepared by the Waste

Planning Authority.

1.3 This report provides an understanding of the waste that requires management in Cheshire

East for the period to 2030. It also assesses the existing facilities that are available to manage

this waste and considers the need for additional facilities to manage the forecast

requirements. This study is intended to inform and support the preparation of local

development plan documents by the Cheshire East Waste Planning Authority and needs to be

robust and defendable at Examination.

1.4 In developing an evidence base for Cheshire East, the first key stage is to gain an

understanding of how much waste requires management, and where it comes from.

Understanding how much waste is generated relies on a variety of data sources of varying

quality. Forecasting how much waste will be generated in the future is a process that involves

estimating future behaviour of individuals and businesses and the markets within which they

operate. Baseline waste arisings and forecast arisings to 2030 are presented in this report for

the following waste streams:

• Local Authority Collected (LACW);

• Commercial and Industrial (C&I);

• Construction, Demolition and Excavation (CDEW);

• Hazardous;


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• Low Level Radioactive (LLW); and

• Agricultural.

1.5 The second key stage is to understand what waste management capacity is available

within the Cheshire East WPA area to deal with these wastes. This report therefore also

identifies the capacity of existing waste management facilities in Cheshire East, together with

some of those facilities that are in the planning stage and likely to come forward. The

additional capacity that may be required for more sustainable management of waste is then

calculated and Cheshire East WPA can use this information to support the identification of

appropriate locations for the development of additional facilities. This assessment focusses on

the key waste types generated by the studied waste streams i.e.:

Organic wastes;

Recyclable wastes (e.g. paper, card, glass, metals, plastic);

Inert waste from construction; and

Residual wastes.

Waste Arisings

1.6 A variety of data sources have been used to generate waste arisings estimates for the

Cheshire East WPA area to 2030 and to quantify the likely demand on local waste management

facilities. Where a range of future waste growth scenarios are available, these have been

developed to produce an indication of minimum and maximum likely demand on local

infrastructure.

Local Authority Collected Waste (LACW)

1.7 Quantities of Local Authority Collected Waste (LACW) ascertained from data provided by

the Waste Strategy Team of the Authority show a reduction of 5.3% from 188kt to 178kt over

the period 2009 to 2013, even though the population and number of households in the

Borough has increased. This is in common with trends seen at national level. The recycling rate

increased slightly over this period, from 49% to 53%. The impact of both factors therefore saw

residual waste (black bin) collections reduce from 96kt to 84kt from 2009 to 2013 (12.5%). A

significant proportion of recyclate collected from households in Cheshire East is sent to a

sorting facility at Deeside in Flintshire, outside of the Cheshire East planning area. The

majority of the residual waste is currently landfilled within Cheshire East. Forecasts for likely

LACW quantities in the future were produced using a variety of methodologies, including

forward forecasting based on historical trends, or using population and household forecasts.

These produce a range of long term projections which have been built into the capacity

assessment model.

Commercial & Industrial (C&I) Waste

1.8 The quantity of Commercial & Industrial (C&I) waste arising was estimated by

extrapolating the survey results of the North West C&I waste arisings survey from 2009 using

the business populations in Cheshire East for 2012. Using this method, it is estimated that a


3

total of 514,000 tonnes of C&I waste is currently generated annually in Cheshire East, of which

approximately 60% is re-used or recycled. Cheshire East C&I waste arisings were then forecast

to 2030 based on the Gross Value Added (GVA) economic growth forecasts from the Cheshire

& Warrington Econometric Model (CWEM). This modelling suggests an increase in arisings over

the forecast period to ca. 540,000 tonnes in 2030.

1.9 Arisings estimates and forecasts were also produced for waste types with a lesser impact

on waste management requirements in the WPA area, either because of their relatively small

volumes or low hazard in treatment or disposal.

Hazardous Waste

1.10 Hazardous wastes consist of some 28,000 tonnes of waste materials produced annually,

which are mostly dealt with by material specific facilities outside of Cheshire East. This

includes, for instance, incineration of Cheshire East generated healthcare wastes in Wrexham,

and incineration of asbestos based construction & demolition wastes in Doncaster.

Construction, Demolition and Excavation Wastes (CDEW)

1.11 Data on inert and other wastes generated by construction, demolition and excavation

activities is not complete, because significant volumes are reused on site or are processed

through facilities exempt from waste management licencing and therefore without an

obligation to report annual inputs. Of the 113,000 tonnes passing through licenced waste

management facilities, most (92%) is landfilled or recycled locally.

Agricultural Wastes

1.12 Data on controlled agricultural wastes is sparse. Figures have been estimated using the

most recent survey of agricultural wastes generated in 2003. These updated figures suggest

arisings of some 580,000 tonnes annually, the majority of which is used for land recovery or

treatment on site and therefore has no impact on local waste management facilities.

Low Level Radioactive Wastes (LLW)

1.13 Only 200 tonnes annually of low level radioactive waste is generated in Cheshire East,

which is disposed of in specialist incineration facilities outside of the WPA area.

1.14 In summary, arisings estimates show baseline waste arisings in Cheshire East WPA area in

2012 of some 1.41 million tonnes, of which 13% is local authority collected waste, 36%

commercial & industrial waste, 8% construction & demolition waste and 41% agricultural

waste. However, there is uncertainty in some of these figures, which in some cases use aging

and uncertain source data. Forecasting these arisings to 2030, by applying population and

housing growth forecasts and economic growth data from the Cheshire & Warrington

Econometric Model (CWEM), suggests that by that year, Cheshire East based activities will

generate between 1.46 and 1.54 million tonnes of waste. These figures are broken down by

waste type in Table 1 following.


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Table 1: Summary of Arisings forecasts for Cheshire East by waste source, 2012 to 2030 (in

tonnes to nearest 1,000)

Waste Source 2012 2015 2020 2025 2030

Local Authority Collected Waste (*)

177,000 172,000-183,000

157,000-190,000

143,000-198,000

129,000-205,000

Commercial & Industrial Wastes

514,000 524,000 534,000 543,000 543,000

Hazardous Wastes 29,000 29,000 33,000 36,000 40,000

Construction, demolition & excavation wastes

113,000 115,000 125,000 133,000 141,000

Agricultural wastes 581,000 547,000 572,000 613,000 613,000

Low Level Radioactive Wastes

200 206 229 255 282

(*) depends upon forecasting methodology used

Capacity

1.15 Using details of Permitted waste management facilities, a list of operating and planned

waste management facilities in Cheshire East has been developed. The expected future

commencement date of planned facilities and the expected closure of existing facilities have

been used to generate capacity estimates per waste management type from now to 2030.

Comparison of these capacity estimates to forecast arisings has identified gaps in the local

waste management provision.

Table 2: Summary of Capacity forecasts for Cheshire East by waste management type, 2012

to 2030 (in tonnes to nearest 1,000) – key capacities only

Waste Management Type

2012 Actuals 2015 2020 2025 2030

Anaerobic Digestion 0 0 0 0 0

Biodiesel plant 8,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000

Composting 51,000 48,000 48,000 48,000 48,000

HWRC/Transfer 40,000 45,000 45,000 45,000 45,000

Landfill - non hazardous 214,000 140,000 0 0 0

Landfill Hazardous Inert 20,000 0 0 0 0

MRF 0 125,000 125,000 125,000 125,000

Transfer 421,000 386,000 386,000 386,000 386,000

Transfer Hazardous 11,000 16,000 16,000 16,000 16,000

1.16 There are two key non-hazardous waste landfills currently operational within Cheshire

East. One, Danes Moss Landfill, is closing at the end of 2014. The other, Maw Green Landfill,

was due to cease tipping in 2011, but has applied successfully for permission to extend until


5

2017. There are potentially further plans to continue tipping residual waste at Maw Green

Landfill until 2027. However no planning application has been submitted to extend this

currently.

Capacity Gap Analysis

Organic Waste Management

1.17 Organic wastes such as garden wastes, kitchen and commercial food wastes, crop wastes

can be recycled using aerobic composting (as windrow or in-vessel) or anaerobic digestion.

There are established land spread reuse routes for organic crop wastes generated by

agriculture which do not impact on the waste management requirements for the WPA.

Therefore, main sources of organic waste are household collections and commercial and

industrial waste, from, for instance, food manufacturers, retailers, caterers etc.

1.18 Food waste must be handled in such a way as to comply with the animal by-products

regulations. This means it must be kept under cover at all times and processed at a sufficiently

high temperatures to ensure that the end digestate is safe for use on the land. These

processes, usually anaerobic digestion or in-vessel composting, are more expensive than the

treatment required for garden waste which can be composted in open windrows.

1.19 A number of facilities to process organic wastes have been identified within the Cheshire

East WPA area. A comparison requirements with the currently available waste management

capacity shows that there is insufficient capacity for the management of organic wastes with

maximum arisings of approximately 91,000 tonnes per annum and capacity of approximately

48,000 tonnes per annum.

Table 3: Organic waste, Cheshire East arisings and capacity forecasts, 2012 - 2030 (to nearest

1,000 tonnes)

2012 2015 2020 2025 2030

Organic Waste Arisings (min) 82,000 82,000 83,000 84,000 82,000

Organic Waste Arisings (max) 82,000 84,000 86,000 89,000 91,000

Anaerobic Digestion capacity 0 0 0 0 0

Composting capacity 51,000 48,000 48,000 48,000 48,000

Organic Waste Capacity 51,000 48,000 48,000 48,000 48,000

Capacity Gap (Max scenario) 31,000 36,000 38,000 41,000 43,000

1.20 The comparison of arisings to capacity suggests that there is potentially insufficient

organic recycling capacity in Cheshire East to deal with local arisings to 2030, particularly to

deal with food waste. If facilities located in other Waste Planning Authority Areas turn out not

to be available, then sites should be sought for the development of new capacity within

Cheshire East.


6

1.21 Additional capacity for the treatment of organic waste is required of between 31,000

tonnes per annum and 43,000 tpa as shown in Table 3, particularly for food waste. Anaerobic

digestion facilities can vary considerably in their capacity, from 1,000 tonnes per annum

upwards. Sites of 0.3 hectares can accommodate AD facilities with a capacity of 5,000 tpa

(such as the AD plant at Coder Road, Ludlow Business Park, Ludlow) or a capacity of 18,000 tpa

as at the facility at Rogerstone, Caerphilly.

1.22 One larger facility occupying a site of 2 ha could therefore manage in excess of 43,000

tpa of organic wastes. The capacity gap could also be filled through the development of two

smaller facilities on sites of 0.3 ha each.

1.23 The authority is likely to collect food waste with garden waste due to the economics of

collecting in a rural authority and ease to the householder. If collected as a combined waste in

this way, an AD plant of 50 – 60,000 tonnes would be required but this could be

accommodated on a single 2ha site. Cheshire East waste strategy looks to utilise dry AD for the

processing of comingled garden food waste.

1.24 In the selection of a site for waste management, it is important that vehicular access is

adequate and that routes to the site are appropriate for industrial traffic and do not conflict

with sensitive uses such as housing. The immediate area around a waste management site

should also be safeguarded from sensitive development to avoid conflicts of uses and

complaints about noise or odour. Industrial sites are generally appropriate for modern waste

management facilities, but existing buildings rarely have sufficient eaves height for the

development of waste management facilities.

Recycling

1.25 In general, recyclates such as plastics, metals, paper and cardboard, glass, are collected

for recycling either as a segregated single material waste stream, or as a mixture of recyclates

i.e. co-mingled. Co-mingled waste streams therefore need additional processing to segregate

the individual recyclates for further processing by material specific recyclers or reprocessors.

These types of facility are termed material recovery facilities (MRF).

1.26 Assessing the capacity requirements for recycling waste can be problematic as in general

much of the recyclate segregated by businesses for recycling is transported directly to the

recycler without passing through a transfer station or other licensed waste management

facility. As recyclers tend to be exempt from waste management licensing, this means that the

data on these arisings, transfers and capacities is lost from the usual Environment Agency

waste site returns data. Although this can impact on LACW data too, as in Cheshire East all

recyclate is managed via a transfer station, none of the kerbside collected recycling is lost from

the WDF figures.


7

1.27 This means that MRF capacity is not necessarily required in order to increase the quantity

of materials that is recycled. It should also be noted that the delineation between facilities

described as MRFs and transfer stations is getting increasingly confused, as transfer station

operators often separate recyclate materials for recycling from their input streams, rather than

just bulking for transport to other facilities.

1.28 However, in the case of Cheshire East, for waste collected from households, mixed

recyclate co-mingled collections are made for which dedicated MRF capacity is required. This

capacity is currently provided outside of the Cheshire East WPA area. The data for commercial

and industrial waste however suggests that much of the material collected from businesses for

recycling is segregated and less likely to pass through a MRF or other licensed waste

management facility.

1.29 Current MRF capacity amounts to 125,000 tonnes per annum compared with a

requirement to re-use and recycle up to 420,000 tonnes per annum. This suggests a need for

significantly more capacity for collecting and sorting recyclable materials, both from

households and businesses of at least 262,000 tonnes per annum (minimum scenario) to

295,000 tonnes per annum (maximum scenario).

Residual Waste

1.30 Residual waste is that which is left after materials have been removed or segregated for

recycling i.e. the residue which cannot economically or physically be recycled. Traditionally this

material has been landfilled in non-hazardous facilities, although energy recovery or some

other residual waste treatment methodology such as mechanical biological treatment (MBT)

are becoming more common as the cost of landfill increases through the imposition of landfill

tax.

1.31 Comparing forecast arisings with likely future capacity suggests a clear gap in residual

treatment capacity in Cheshire East. While there is significant non-hazardous landfill capacity

in the Plan area this is time-limited and there are no recovery facilities for residual non-

hazardous waste.

Table 4: Non-hazardous residual waste, Cheshire East arisings and capacity forecasts, 2012 -

2030 (to nearest 1,000 tonnes)

2012 2015 2020 2025 2030

Residual Waste Arisings (Min) 211,000 201,000 179,000 156,000 130,000

Residual Waste Arisings (Max) 211,000 217,000 222,000 229,000 232,000

Landfill Capacity 214,000 140,000 0 0 0


8

Figure 1: Non-hazardous residual waste, Cheshire East arisings and capacity forecasts, 2012 -

2030 (tonnes)

1.32 This gap of between 130kt and 232kt per year is the equivalent of the input to 1 or 2

energy recovery or gasification facilities.

1.33 However, research has shown a large number of such facilities are either operational or

under development in nearby authorities. Although these are clearly being developed for their

own local requirements, several of these may potentially have sufficient free capacity for the

treatment of residual waste from Cheshire East. For instance free capacity at the facility in

Stoke-on-Trent is already being used for the recovery of some of the residual waste collected

from households in Cheshire East. Facilities that are coming forward in the near future are

shown in the report. The location of these facilities is mapped in the following figure.


9

Figure 2: Residual waste recovery facilities (operating and planned) proximate to Cheshire

East

1.34 Note that residual waste collected from households in Cheshire West and Chester is

being transported for energy recovery to a facility at Ferrybridge in Yorkshire, some 96 miles

away.

1.35 If facilities located in other Waste Planning Authority Areas turn out not to be available,

then sites should be sought for the development of new capacity within Cheshire East.

1.36 Energy from Waste facilities can be located on relatively small sites and manage a

significant throughput. The Lakeside EfW in Colnbrook, Slough sits on a site of approximately


10

2.6 ha and currently has a throughput of 440,000 tpa. One site of 2.5 ha would therefore be

sufficient for a single facility for the management of residual waste for the whole authority.

1.37 It should also be noted that there is significant capacity in non-hazardous landfill sites

that lie in close proximity to Cheshire East. The report gives details of the main sites that could

potentially accommodate residual waste from Cheshire East.

1.38 The planning status of these facilities and therefore their ability to take residual waste in

the future, is not known and is outside of the scope of this work It should be noted also that

there may also be local options available through the extending of the planning permission for

Maw Green Landfill to 2017, or if requested to 2027, to provide at least some of the required

capacity.

1.39 It is recommended therefore that liaison should take place with the Waste Planning

Authorities in which these facilities are located. Discussions should identify whether the waste

management strategy in these authorities will be significantly impacted by the use of these

facilities for the disposal or treatment of waste from Cheshire East. These discussions should

be documented as part of the evidence base for the Waste DPD. Opportunities for managing

waste in other Waste Planning Authority Areas can be identified as ways of ensuring the

deliverability of the Waste DPD. The quantity of residual waste from a variety of sources that

will require disposal or treatment under the two scenarios is between 130,000 tonnes pa (low

residual waste scenario) and 232,000 tonnes pa (high residual waste scenario). This might be

sufficient to justify the development of a facility for the use of Cheshire East, although there is

potentially free capacity in facilities in the pipeline in neighbouring authorities.

Construction and Demolition (inert) wastes

1.40 In Cheshire East, most of the recorded CDEW is disposed of at landfill sites within the

authority boundary. Some of this material will be required as cover for non-hazardous landfill

sites or for restoration purposes. Sites for the treatment of inert wastes are often based at

quarries or landfill sites and for this reason will ultimately be time-limited due to the

temporary nature of quarries and landfill sites.

1.41 Because the data on this waste stream is poor, the approach from organisations such as

WRAP (the Government’s Waste and Resources Action Programme) is to look at ways of

reducing waste arisings from this source. Qualitative approaches to reducing waste generated

from construction activities have therefore been developed which significantly reduce the

amount of waste arising and provide solutions to the management of this waste stream. If

processing and disposal sites for C&D wastes are located a significant distance from the

location of the waste arising, it becomes uneconomic to transport the waste there and illegal

tipping of these wastes is more likely to occur. The results from studies into construction waste

conclude that there is a need to ensure that there is a broad distribution of appropriate sites

to support the proper management of this type of waste. Such sites should be able to

accommodate storage and processing facilities so that material can be recycled.


11

Low Level Radioactive Wastes

1.42 Most of this material is Low Level Waste or Very Low Level Waste and can therefore

usually be managed at non-hazardous waste management sites unless there is a specific

prohibition against doing so. The quantities of radioactive waste are small and not sufficient to

justify the development of new waste management facilities. Advice from the Planning

Inspectorate is that policies on the management of this waste stream are unlikely to be

needed unless there is specific interest in the development of facilities from operators in the

area.

1.43 There are no nuclear facilities in Cheshire East such as power stations or defence

installations that produce higher lever radioactive wastes which require more specialist

management.

Conclusions and Recommendations

1.44 The results of this study show that there is insufficient organic waste management

capacity in Cheshire East to manage the organic waste arising currently as well as that

forecasted to arise in the future, particularly for food waste. Local capacity will be required if

there are not facilities close by to the local authority area which can take such wastes.

1.45 There is only sufficient recycling capacity in Cheshire East to manage 30% of the total

estimated arisings of recyclable material. Facilities in other areas are currently used, but

additional capacity is likely to be required if recycling and re-use rates are to increase in line

with the new targets from the EU in the North West as a whole. This is particularly important

in the context of the new targets that have recently been proposed by the European

Commission for recycling and re-use. These targets may be met through a combination of

improved collection methods for both household and business waste as well as by using

Material Recycling Facilities to mechanically sort recyclable waste.

1.46 With regard to residual waste treatment, there is a clear gap in residual treatment

capacity in Cheshire East. There is a need for between 300,000 tonnes per annum and 232,000

tonnes per annum of residual treatment capacity for non-hazardous waste arising.

1.47 There are no waste recovery facilities in the Plan area and the active landfill sites are all

time limited. It is possible that the life of these landfill sites may be extended over time, but

this is unlikely to comprise a long term solution for the management of residual waste. In

addition to this, efforts should be made to recover energy from any waste that cannot be re-

used or recycled, in order to promote the management of waste further up the waste

hierarchy. This is consistent with the Cheshire East Waste Strategy. There is therefore a need

to fill this gap either with a new strategic facility in Cheshire East or another facility nearby.


12

1.48 There are a significant number of such facilities planned or operational in nearby

authorities and several of these are likely to have sufficient capacity for the treatment of

residual waste from Cheshire East. Liaison with the relevant Waste Planning Authorities

therefore needs to take place and investigate the potential routes for managing waste from

Cheshire East in these nearby locations.

1.49 Because there are a number of strategic facilities planned in the vicinity of Cheshire East,

it may not be economically viable to deliver a new facility in the Plan area, even if a suitable

site is identified. Discussions should therefore take place to ascertain the possibility of

securing access to the use of other facilities in order to support the production of a deliverable

plan for waste management.

1.50 The next steps in the development of the Waste DPD are as follows:

1. Draft policies to safeguard existing waste management sites or ensure that existing

capacity is maintained.

2. Draft policies for the reduction of waste from construction activity and for the

sustainable management of waste in new housing and commercial development.

3. Enter into discussions with other Waste Planning Authorities where there is a

significant exchange of waste or where there is likely to be such an exchange with

the Plan period.

4. Identify ways of achieving additional sorting and recycling activity, including source

segregation for households and businesses and additional sites for sorting, bulking

and recycling waste.


13

2 Introduction

Background

2.1 Each Waste Planning Authority (WPA) in the UK has an obligation to plan for sustainable

waste management. Cheshire East Council is therefore expected to produce a Waste Plan in

accordance with the Waste Framework Directive 2008.

2.2 The existing waste policies under which applications for planning permission are currently

determined are contained in national policy and the saved policies in the Cheshire

Replacement Waste Local Plan which was adopted in 2007. These policies therefore now

require updating and bringing into line with current legislation.

2.3 Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester became separate unitary authorities in 2009

having previously comprised Cheshire County Council and associated District Councils.

2.4 However, planning for waste management is a strategic issue and all Waste Planning

Authorities must look beyond their own boundaries to understand the flows of waste between

authorities and identify sites that are most appropriate for waste management uses. Following

the abolition of regional planning in the Localism Act of 2011, strategic planning must be

carried out through liaison between planning authorities. This involves each planning authority

identifying their own needs for housing, transport and all types of infrastructure, and working

in conjunction with other authorities to ensure that this is delivered in a coherent fashion.

2.5 This is confirmed by the recently published “National Planning Policy for Waste” (16th

October, 2014), which also states that in preparing Local Plans, waste planning authorities

should:

• “take into account any need for waste management, including for disposal of the

residues from treated wastes, arising in more than one waste planning authority

area but where only a limited number of facilities would be required;

• work collaboratively in groups with other waste planning authorities, and in two-tier

areas with district authorities, through the statutory duty to cooperate, to provide a

suitable network of facilities to deliver sustainable waste management;

• consider the extent to which the capacity of existing operational facilities would

satisfy any identified need.”

and

“In preparing their plans, waste planning authorities should plan for the disposal of waste and

the recovery of mixed municipal waste in line with the proximity principle, recognising that


14

new facilities will need to serve catchment areas large enough to secure the economic viability

of the plant.”

Scope of this work

2.6 The Cheshire Replacement Waste Local Plan builds on the conclusions from a 2003 “Needs

Assessment” 2003. An up to date Needs Assessment is therefore required to provide the basis

for new waste management policies which will be contained in the new Waste Development

Plan Document. This study is intended to inform and support the preparation of local

development plan documents by the Cheshire East Waste Planning Authority and needs to be

robust and defendable at Examination.

2.7 In developing an evidence base for Cheshire East, the first key stage is to gain an

understanding of how much waste requires management, and where it comes from.

Understanding how much waste is generated relies on a variety of data sources of varying

quality. Forecasting how much waste will be generated in the future is a process that involves

estimating future behaviour of individuals and businesses and the markets within which they

operate. Baseline waste arisings and forecast arisings to 2030 are presented in this report for

the following waste streams:

• Local Authority Collected (LACW);

• Commercial and Industrial (C&I);

• Construction, Demolition and Excavation (CDEW);

• Hazardous;

• Low Level Radioactive (LLW); and

• Agricultural

2.8 The second key stage is to understand what waste management capacity is available

within the Cheshire East WPA area to deal with these wastes. This report therefore also

identifies the capacity of existing waste management facilities in Cheshire East, together with

some of those facilities that are in the planning stage and likely to come forward. The

additional capacity that may be required for more sustainable management of waste is then

calculated and Cheshire East WPA can use this information to support the identification of

appropriate locations for the development of additional facilities.

The work required to generate this study therefore comprises of three key stages:

Stage 1: Review of Waste Arisings data and Update of Projections to 2030

2.9 Stage 1 of the study identified waste arisings for the Cheshire East WPA area by waste

source and waste destination by review of the baseline data from a number of agreed public

domain sources. These baseline figures were then used to forward forecast waste arisings to

2030 using a range of growth factors. The WPA provided baseline arisings for LACW as well as


15

economic growth forecasts and employee growth forecasts for their area for use in this stage

of the study. The growth factors used take into account legislative and policy impacts.

2.10 The outputs of Stage 1 were:

Quantities of current waste arising by waste stream using the best available data

“High” and “Low” scenarios for Local Authority Collected Waste and Commercial &

Industrial waste arisings; and

Forecasts to 2030 of waste arising for each waste stream in order to provide an

understanding of the types of facilities that will be required to manage these wastes.

Stage 2: Cheshire East Waste Management Capacities 2.11 The second stage of this study aggregated data on waste management facilities within

the Cheshire East WPA area, both those currently operating and those not operating but with

planning permission granted. Using planning and permitting data forecast capacities were

produced for each facility and facility type to 2030.

2.12 For Stage 2 of the study, the Waste Planning Authority provided information on current

and planned waste management facilities in their areas. This was augmented with details of

licensed waste management facilities provided by the Environment Agency.


Data on existing waste management facilities including type of facility and capacity;

and

Forecasts of capacity per facility and waste management type, to 2030.

Stage 3: Capacity gap analysis 2.14 Finally Stage 3 of this study identified the gap between forecast arisings and current and planned capacity in the WPA area. This included identifying how much waste could be managed by existing capacity and how much would need to be treated by new capacity. The analysis of the capacity gap included and took account of: • Existing, planned, and proposed waste facilities and capacities; • Recycling and recovery targets, both statutory targets and any aspirational local

targets; • Self-sufficiency and proximity principle consequences; • Landfill trends; • Policy and legislative changes; • Consequences of household/municipal waste management on capacity availability

for commercial and industrial waste;


16


Identified shortfalls of waste management capacity in Cheshire East to deal with

locally generated waste, to 2030; and

An understanding of additional waste management capacity that is required.

2.16 This report therefore details the data sources and methodologies used to deliver these

outputs, and the conclusions and recommendations developed from this study.

3 Policy Context

3.1 Policy driving the management of waste in the UK has been significantly driven by European policy in recent years. The waste management policies in the Local Plan will need to comply with EU and Government policy as follows:

Revised European Waste Framework Directive 2008;

EU Review of Waste Policy and Legislation 2014;

Planning Act 2008;

Localism Act 2011;

National Planning Policy Framework (2012);

Waste Management Plan for England 2013 (and predecessor documents); and

Planning Policy Statement 10 “Planning for Sustainable Waste Management

(reviewed July 2014) and its update when published.

3.2 There are also a number of National Policy Statements (NPS) that will need to be taken into account such as the NPS on Hazardous Waste.

Revised European Waste Framework Directive 2008 and Review of

Waste Policy

3.3 Article 28 of the Waste Framework Directive 2008 sets out the requirement for each

Member State to produce a Waste Management Plan. This Plan must set out an analysis of

the current waste management situation and sufficient information on the locational criteria

for site identification and on the capacity of future disposal or major recovery installations.

These locational criteria are contained in the Local Plans or Waste Plans of local authorities in

the UK. The Cheshire East Local Plan will form part of the UK’s Waste Management Plan and

will need to contain locational criteria in order to meet the requirements of the Directive.

3.4 A recently published Review of Waste Policy and Legislation by the EU has introduced a

range of higher targets for recycling and the phasing out of landfilling organic and recyclable

materials. This Review means that facilities for the management of waste in accordance with

these new targets will be required and should be planned for as part of the Local Plan.


17

Localism Act 2011

3.5 The Localism Act 2011 gave the responsibility for strategic planning back to local

authorities acting individually. However, section 110 of the Localism Act prescribes the “Duty

to Co-operate” between local authorities in order to ensure that they work together on

strategic issues such as waste planning. The duty is “to engage constructively, actively and on

an on-going basis” and must “maximise the effectiveness” of all authorities concerned with

plan-making. For matters such as waste planning, it is therefore important that local

authorities can show that they have worked together in exchanging information and reaching

agreement on where waste management facilities will be built. Meeting regularly with officers

from other authorities through the North West Waste Network is an important aspect of this

co-operation.

3.6 However, engagement is not an end in itself. The objective is to develop a Local Plan that

is deliverable for all parties. In the context of planning for waste management, it is necessary

to understand waste flows between local authority areas and to ensure that all local plans take

account of these flows. If a facility in one Waste Planning Authority Area can easily manage

imports from another WPA Area, then neither Waste Plan is destabilised by such imports. If

however, a facility that has historically been used by another WPA Area does not have capacity

to handle continuing imports, or is closing, then alternative provision must be sought.

Regional Context

3.7 Regional planning was abolished by the Localism Act 2011. However, the Regional Spatial

Strategy for the North West was published in 2008 and a useful evidence base was developed

at this time. The North West Waste Network comprises officers from all the Waste Planning

Authorities in the North West and continues to meet and exchange information to support

joint working.

3.8 In particular, a survey of Commercial & Industrial Waste Arisings was commissioned by the

North West Regional Technical Advisory Body on Waste in 2007 and by the Environment

Agency for the same area in 2010. Together these two studies provide important pieces of

evidence on C&I waste arisings in the North West Region, to a level that is not available in

other parts of England.

3.9 Cheshire East as a Waste Planning Authority forms part of a wider grouping of authorities

and exchanges of waste amongst them must be taken into account when planning for new

facilities. This is because new facilities over a certain size will not be economic to develop if

sufficient waste is not available to ensure that they are viable. Planning for new facilities and

making land available for such facilities will therefore be ineffective.

Local Context

3.10 Cheshire East became a Unitary Authority in 2009 and at this time took over the Waste

Planning Authority functions from the former Cheshire County Council. The current policies for


18

waste management are therefore contained in the Cheshire Replacement Waste Local Plan

which was adopted by Cheshire County Council in 12th July 2007. This contains the conclusions

from a Waste Needs Assessment from 2003.

3.11 The Local Plan Strategy will be subject to an Examination in Public in September 2014 and

contains policies for housing, employment and infrastructure. A separate Waste Development

Plan Document will be prepared which will set out policies for dealing with waste and identify

sites for waste management facilities. It will need to include criteria for those sites taking into

account the requirements of Government Guidance “Planning for Sustainable Waste

Management”.

3.12 The following sections of this report therefore take these policies and context into account.

4 Waste Arisings Estimates

4.1 The first stage of this study is to review the available data on waste arisings from a variety

of sources, and then use this data, along with factors which are likely to influence arisings in

the future, to generate arisings estimates per waste type to 2030.

Introduction

4.2 The term ‘municipal waste’ has historically been used in waste policy to describe all waste

which is managed by or on behalf of a local authority.

4.3 However, the Landfill Directive defines municipal waste as waste from households as well

as other waste that, because of its nature or composition, is similar to waste from households.

This includes a significant amount of waste that is generated by businesses and which is not

collected by local authorities.

4.4 For planning purposes, it is important to know how much waste in total requires

management. Local authorities have established systems for measuring the quantities of waste

that they manage and this is reported to Defra through the WasteDataFlow reporting system

which has been established since 2004. Data from this source is seen as robust and is the basis

of much of the municipal waste figures presented in this report.

4.5 The remainder of waste arisings, whether similar to household waste or more

homogeneous, is not measured through a systematic or robust system, but in periodic surveys

that have been carried out to understand the quantities arising.

4.6 To ensure consistency with the terminology used by National Government, the term ‘Local

Authority Collected Waste’ (LACW) will be used for the waste recorded by WasteDataFlow and

the remainder of the non-hazardous waste which is collected from business will be referred to

as Commercial and Industrial (C&I) waste. This terminology originates from Defra’s response to


19

the consultation on meeting the EU Landfill Diversion Targets in England in 2010 and ensures

that LACW data is consistent with data on LACW in previous work.

4.7 Included in this study are wastes from other sources, for instance as agriculture and

construction, demolition and excavation operations (termed CDEW). Robust datasets are not

available at this time for waste generated by these other business sectors. However, estimates

have been made in production of this study, and the implication of these estimates on

Cheshire East WPA waste management provision discussed.

Local Authority Collected Waste (LACW)

What is this waste? 4.8 Municipal waste consists of waste which comes into the possession of, or under the

control of, the local authority, with the exception of municipal construction and demolition

waste. It can be subdivided into a number of components:

Household waste (the main component) consists primarily of waste collected directly

from households;

Household waste (with the exception of inert construction waste) which is accepted

and collected at household waste recycling centres/civic amenity sites;

Other household waste (smaller components) such as litter and street cleaning

waste; and

Non-household waste. The main components of municipal waste classified as non-

household include commercial waste collected by local authorities (commonly

termed “trade waste”) and inert construction materials accepted at household waste

recycling centres.

4.9 Local authorities are required to make detailed returns to Defra concerning the quantity of

waste arisings and how the materials are subsequently managed.

How much is produced? National Trends

4.10 The review of Defra’s WasteDataFlow (WDF) figures for England show a gradual decrease

in total waste collected from households, reducing from 29 million tonnes in 2006-7 to just

above 25 million tonnes in 2012-13. This is despite increases in population and the number of

households over the same period.

4.11 A parallel increase in the amount of waste separated for recycling, reuse and composting,

and gradual increase in the volume of residual waste sent for energy recovery and other

disposal routes, has resulted in a considerable decrease in the quantity of household waste

landfilled from over 16 million tonnes to 7 million tonnes by 2012-13.


20

These trends are illustrated in the WasteDataFlow output summarised in Table 5.

Table 5: Household Waste Collection Quantities (in tonnes) for England (Source:

WasteDataFlow)

Year

LACW Collected for Recycling, Composting and Reuse

LACW sent directly for

Energy Recovery

LACW sent directly to

Landfill

LACW sent to other disposal

routes

Total LACW Arisings

2006-7 9,028,301 3,015,510 16,345,302 788,121 29,177,233

2007-8 9,818,809 2,895,987 14,337,083 1,515,449 28,567,328

2008-9 10,209,421 2,962,706 12,593,639 1,629,252 27,395,018

2009-10 10,342,359 3,343,546 11,022,695 1,882,223 26,590,823

2010-11 10,618,382 3,550,296 9,840,539 2,268,556 26,277,772

2011-12 10,648,807 4,074,688 8,096,958 2,673,773 25,494,226

2012-13 10,465,216 4,346,383 7,260,304 2,996,321 25,068,223

4.12 The overall reduction in household waste collected is likely to be at least partly as a result

of increasing public awareness of the issues around waste reduction, re-use and recycling.

There has been a significant amount of work being carried out in this area by local authorities

as well as campaigns by national organisations and a growing awareness of the environmental

impact of poor resource management. The “light-weighting” of packaging and other measures

taken by the manufacturers of consumer goods has been a significant contributor in reducing

the weight of household waste arisings.1

4.13 The recession has also been cited as a factor in the reduction in LACW arisings, since

consumption of goods generally has reduced since 2008. However, available data shows that

tonnages arising nationally have steadily reduced since 2002/3, suggesting there is more at

play than a simple economic impact.

Local Arisings

4.14 Cheshire East Borough Council collects waste from its residents using:

Green bins for collecting garden waste;

Silver bins for collecting mixed recyclates including cans, glass, plastic bottles &

containers, paper & card, cartons and aerosols; and

Black bins for residual, un-recyclable refuse.

4.15 Reported collection volumes from 2009 to 2013 are given in Table 6. In common with

trends seen at national level, these show a reduction in the total waste collected from 188kt to

178kt (5.3%) over the period. The recycling rate increased slightly over this period, from 49%

1 Source: INCPEN, The Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment


21

to 53%. The impact of both factors therefore saw residual waste (black bin) collections reduce

from 96kt to 84kt from 2009 to 2013 (12.5%).

Table 6: Refuse collection tonnages, 2009-2013 (Source: Cheshire East Council)

Waste Type 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14

Green waste composted 45,117 42,541 43,456 42,505 41,151

Mixed Recyclates 47,791 46,517 49,822 51,491 53,289

Residual Waste 95,797 93,674 84,030 81,596 83,789

Total Waste 188,615 182,658 177,237 175,520 178,161

% recycled & composted 49% 49% 53% 54% 53%

Figure 3: Historic pattern of Local Authority Collected Waste Arisings

What happens to this waste? 4.16 The destination of these collected household waste streams is summarised in Table 1.

Mixed recyclates are sent to the UPM Kymmene Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) at Deeside,

outside of the Cheshire East planning area for separation into its constituent recyclates for

subsequent recycling. The majority of the residual waste is landfilled within Cheshire East,

although a proportion of this waste started going to energy recovery in 2013 . By 2013-14 this

amounted to 10,421 tonnes per year, sent to the Stoke-on-Trent energy from waste facility,

again outside of the Cheshire East area. One of the core elements of the emerging Waste

Strategy to 2030 is to reduce disposal to landfill to zero and instead send this waste stream to

an energy from waste facility.


22

Table 7: Destination LACW collected by CEBC

Residual (black bin) Waste

Danes Moss landfill, Macclesfield

Maw Green landfill, Crewe

MES Environmental Ltd, Stoke EfW Plant

Staffordshire ERF, Four Ashes (contingency)

Garden (green bin) Waste

WGR Ltd. (Whittakers Green Farm), nr Nantwich

Re-Sort Ltd, Oak Leigh, Brownlow, Congleton

CRJ Services Ltd Fields Farm, nr Sandbach

HSF Recycling, Higher Smallwood Farm, Scholar Green, nr Alsager

Kerbside dry mixed recycling

Pym's Lane depot (CEBC, Transfer), Crewe

Henshaws Envirocare Ltd. Macclesfield (Transfer)

UPM Kymmene (UK) Ltd, Deeside, Flintshire (MRF)

How much LACW is forecast to be produced in the future? Methodology

4.17 In the past the forecasting of future household waste arisings mainly focused on factors

likely to have a direct impact, such as population and number of households. However, as

demonstrated by recent history, increases nationally and locally in both population and

number of households have not been directly reflected in the year on year reductions in the

total amount of waste collected.

4.18 The table below demonstrates this for Cheshire East household waste arisings. Even

though both population and the number of households in the local authority area have

increased since 2009, collected household waste quantities have decreased.

Table 8: Cheshire East LACW collections against population and number of households,

2009/10 to 2013/14

2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14

Population 360,800 362,700 363,800 372,146 372,146

Number of Households 165,020 165,490 166,110 166,650 167,420

Total waste arisings (tonnes) 188,615 182,658 177,237 175,520 178,161

Waste per household (tonnes)

1.14 1.10 1.07 1.05 1.06

4.19 Therefore, waste collected per head of population and per household has decreased in

Cheshire East over the period 2009 to 2013, with, for instance, reduction in waste collected

per household in the WPA area from 1.14 tonnes to 1.06 tonnes over this period.


23

4.20 The Defra publications “Forecasting 2020 Waste Arisings and Treatment Capacity”

February 2013 and revised October 2013, and the related “Review of Methodology for

Forecasting Waste Infrastructure Requirements” prepared for Defra by NERA, December

2012, reviewed a number of methods of forecasting future LACW arisings and recommend the

analysis of historical time series data. This approach has some value in this case although the

dataset available, going back 5 years, is somewhat small for this type of analysis. Although

reduction year on year has been seen for some time, it is likely that the rate of decrease will at

some stage reduce as the impact of factors such as waste minimisation initiatives and retail

packaging reduction, reach their maximum.

4.21 Therefore, to cover the range of likely outcomes, LACW arisings forecasts have been

generated using:

Population Growth Forecasts – obtained from the document “Cheshire East Local

Plan Background Paper: Population Projections and Forecasts January 2013”. These

projections assume that the LACW arising change in the same proportion as

population holding all other factors constant;

Number of households forecast – derived from the information on the housing

trajectory in the Cheshire East Local Plan Strategy (Submission Version), for Cheshire

East from 2010 to 2030. This method assumes that waste growth is directly

proportional to the growth in number of dwellings; and

Forecasting based on historical data using Vector Autoregressive/Vector Error

Correction Model2 and forecasting.

Results

4.22 Applying the above methodologies produced the following forecasts for total LACW

waste arisings to 2030 as detailed in Table 9 below:

Table 9: Cheshire East LACW Forecasts using various methodologies, 2014 to 2030 (in tonnes)

Year 2012 2015 2020 2025 2030

Based upon Population Forecasts 177,276 180,267 180,560 180,854 181,148

Based upon Number of households forecasts

177,276 182,840 189,996 197,905 204,576

Based upon Historical Data 177,276 171,577 157,155 142,944 128,804

2 In “Review of Methodology for Forecasting Waste Infrastructure Requirements” prepared for Defra by NERA the

authors recommend the use of Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) and/or Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) modelling to achieve this, but both methods need at least 40 time series data points to deliver robust results. As the dataset available in this case was smaller, Vector Autoregressive and Vector Error Correction modelling and forecasting methodology was applied.


24

Use of these Forecasts

4.23 As would be expected, forecasts based upon population or the number of households in

the Cheshire East area, do show a gradual increase in arisings over time. Analysis of the

provided data from 2009 to 2013 using the statistics package STATA does show a long term

relationship between arisings and the number of households. Conversely forecasting using

historical data shows a significant reduction. It is likely this reduction would plateau over the

forecast period as the impact of the recession, waste minimisation initiatives etc. reach their

peak, but unfortunately we don’t have sufficient data to predict when this plateauing would

occur.

4.24 There is a considerable level of uncertainty in the LACW forecasting as outlined in the

methodology and therefore the minimum and maximum scenario results will be used in the

upcoming capacity analysis to ensure a robust data set is being used and not to underestimate

or overestimate arisings.

Figure 4: Cheshire East LACW Forecasts using various methodologies, 2014 to 2030 (in

tonnes)

Forecasts by Waste Management Method

4.25 By applying the growth models previously described to the breakdown of waste collected

from households by waste management destination of that waste, the following forecasts per

waste management type were produced:


25

Table 10: Forecast Waste Arisings by Waste Management Method - using population growth

model

Waste Management Method 2012 2015 2020 2025 2030

Recycling & Reuse 54,000 54,000 55,000 55,000 55,000

Composting, AD and land spread 40,000 41,000 41,000 41,000 41,000

Energy Recovery/Landfill/Treatment 83,000 85,000 85,000 85,000 85,000

Total 177,000 180,000 181,000 181,000 181,000

Recycling & Reuse, Compost & AD 53% 53% 53% 53% 53%

Table 11: Forecast Waste Arisings by Waste Management Method - using housing growth

model


Recycling & Reuse 54,000 55,000 57,000 60,000 62,000



Total 177,000 183,000 190,000 198,000 205,000


Table 12: Forecast Waste Arisings by Waste Management Method - using historical trend

data


Recycling & Reuse 54,000 52,000 47,000 43,000 39,000



Total 177,000 172,000 157,000 143,000 129,000


4.26 Note that in production of these forecasts, recycling rates have remained stationary at

the 2012 figure of 53%. This is because since the abolition of annual statutory recycling targets,

the single national recycling target for local authorities of 50% by 2020, reiterated in the

document “Government Review of Waste Policy in England” published by Defra in 2011, has

already been exceeded by Cheshire East Council, and there are no plans at this time to invest

in new collection or education initiatives to further increase this figure.


26

Commercial and Industrial Waste (C&I Waste) Arisings Forecasts

What is this waste? 4.27 Commercial and industrial (C&I) waste is waste generated from the following activities:

Industrial Sectors

1. Food, drink and tobacco businesses

2. Textiles/wood/paper/publishing businesses

3. Power and utilities companies

4. Chemical/non-metallic minerals manufacturing businesses

5. Metal manufacturing businesses

6. Machinery & equipment (other manufacturing) businesses

Commercial Sectors

7. Retail and wholesale

8. Hotels and catering

9. Public administration and social work

10. Education

11. Transport and storage

12. Other services

How these sectors relate to SIC3 codes and descriptions are shown in Appendix 1.

4.28 C&I waste does not include waste produced by agriculture or quarrying and mining

activities. It also specifically excludes waste management and recycling businesses to avoid

double counting.

4.29 Recent surveys of commercial and industrial waste have recorded waste type produced

by businesses using the Substance Orientated Classification (SOC) of waste type. These are

based upon the chemical and physical nature of the waste and can be summarised as follows:

Animal and vegetable wastes

Chemical waste

Common sludges

Discarded equipment

Health care waste

Metallic waste

Mineral waste

Mixed (ordinary) waste

Non-metallic waste

3 A Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) was first introduced into the UK in 1948 for use in classifying business establishments

and other statistical units by the type of economic activity in which they are engaged. The classification provides a framework for the collection, tabulation, presentation and analysis of data, and its use promotes uniformity. The UK SIC system has been developed in association with the EU’s classification system, NACE. The first four digits of each code are standardised across the EU, and subsequent digits are unique to each country. (Office of National Statistics)


27

How much is produced? Data Sources 4.30 The key sources of data on C&I waste arisings are the various national and regional

commercial and industrial waste surveys which have been delivered for the Environment

Agency, Defra and other bodies since 1998/99. The main English national surveys delivered in

1998/99, 2002/3 and 2009 have surveyed businesses throughout the nation at a sampling rate

which produces robust estimations of total arisings at both national and regional level.

Businesses within North West England have been involved in these surveys, at a sampling rate

appropriate to calculating a regional arising estimate.

4.31 In addition in 2010 Urban Mines Ltd (now part of LRS Consultancy) delivered a detailed

C&I waste arisings survey in the North West region for the Environment Agency. This survey

involved the face to face survey of over 1,000 businesses in the region, selected in a

statistically valid manner, so that the data collected could be extrapolated to produce a

regional total. As shown in Table 14, the survey revealed a 2009 waste arisings figure of 7.1

million tonnes for the whole of the North West region, with the commercial sectors such as

retail and wholesale and other services, producing the most waste.

Arisings Estimates

4.32 There has not been a direct survey of the waste produced by businesses in the North

West region since the last North West C&I waste arisings survey of 2009. Because of the lack of

up to date survey data, the methodology employed to produce arisings estimates for Cheshire

East uses waste arisings averages per business by business sector and business size from the

North West survey and applies these to the business profile for Cheshire East.

4.33 This business profile is obtained using business population data from the Inter-

Departmental Business Register (IDBR) maintained by the Office of National Statistics. This

methodology assumes that for instance a retail company employing 50 people surveyed in the

North West region, as a whole, is likely to produce the same types and amounts of waste as a

retail company employing 50 people at a local authority level in North West, in this case

Cheshire East.

4.34 The Cheshire East 2012 C&I waste arisings were therefore estimated by extrapolating the

grossed survey results of the North West waste arisings survey to the business population in

Cheshire East.

4.35 The North West survey was conducted via face to face interviews from a total of 1,000

companies throughout the region (stratified by 9 sectors and 6 company size bands) to gather

data on waste production and disposal for these premises. The survey ensured that the sample

used for the survey statistically representative of the total number of businesses, i.e. 71,270

companies in the region (with 5 or more employees). The extrapolation involved using 2012

business population data for the North West region and Cheshire East, which was obtained

from the Office of National Statistics.


28

4.36 The 2012 C&I waste arisings estimates for the North West region were estimated by

applying the average waste arisings per company, by sector and business size, from the 2009

North West survey data (by business sector and business size) to the March 2012 business

population data (by sector and business size) based on the assumption that the average waste

arisings per company in 2009 in the Northwest is the same as that in 2012.

4.37 The proportions of 2012 businesses in the North West region in Cheshire East (by sector

and business size) were estimated and then applied to the 2012 waste estimates for the North

West region to provide an estimate of the Cheshire East 2012 C&I waste arisings. In this case,

total estimated C&I arisings for 2012 were 514kt.

What happens to this waste? 4.38 Application of the data from the 2009 survey shows that the majority of the waste

produced by commercial and industrial businesses is recycled, with approximately 25% of the

total arisings either landfilled or energy recovered as residual waste. Waste arisings by waste

management fate are summarised in the table below:

Table 13: Summary of C&I Waste arisings in Cheshire East by fate (in tonnes to nearest 1,000)

Waste Management Fate Quantity (2012)

Recycling & Reuse 307,000

Composting, AD and land spread 42,000

Energy Recovery/Landfill/Treatment 128,000

Don’t know/not relevant 37,000

Total 514,000

Recycling & Reuse 60%

4.39 Waste movements data using site returns information from permitted waste facilities

from the Environment Agency for 2012 for household, industrial and commercial wastes shows

that:

Most waste generated in Cheshire East appears to be processed or disposed of in

Cheshire East (i.e. 57.5% by weight, 41.6% excluding transfer to avoid potential

double counting, mostly composting and non-hazardous landfill).

Of that handled outside of Cheshire East, main destinations are neighbours

Staffordshire and Stockport, both mostly treatment of sludge from waste water

treatment.

Waste movements are explained in more detail in section 0


29

Table 14: C&I waste arisings for North West England by sector and size, 2009 (tonnes, excluding micro (0-4 employees) businesses)4

Sector Description Employee Sizebands Total

5 - 9 10 - 19 20 - 49 50 - 99 100 - 249 250 +

Food, drink and tobacco 2,895 7,006 162,744 38,776 104,941 338,815 655,175

Textiles/wood/paper/publishing 2,862 32,708 98,191 154,157 286,372 42,782 617,072

Power & Utilities 517 2,188 7,269 53,741 65,672 278,635 408,022

Chemical/non-metallic minerals manufacturing

5,354 43,482 54,471 80,065 196,183 214,650 594,206

Metal manufacturing 32,016 11,852 61,998 108,447 51,230 161,304 426,848

Machinery & equipment (other manufacturing)

9,109 43,226 31,595 78,943 157,725 171,345 491,943

Retail & wholesale 224,488 335,806 394,767 226,055 171,965 384,510 1,737,591

Other services 140,717 236,193 302,778 280,455 123,388 324,990 1,408,521

Public sector 25,140 37,534 128,718 115,382 148,672 284,978 740,423

Total 443,098 749,996 1,242,531 1,136,021 1,306,148 2,202,009 7,079,803

4 From “North West of England Commercial and Industrial Waste Survey 2009” Urban Mines for The Environment Agency, March 2010


30

How much C&I waste is forecast to be produced in the future? 4.40 The Defra publications “Forecasting 2020 Waste Arisings and Treatment Capacity” February

2013 and revised October 2013, and the related “Review of Methodology for Forecasting Waste

Infrastructure Requirements” prepared for Defra by NERA, December 2012, review a number of

methods of forecasting future C&I arisings. Unlike LACW, there is not an extensive archive of arisings

data available upon which extrapolations can be made, with data from 3 national surveys available,

delivered in 1998/9, 2002/3 and 2009. Therefore, these reports recommend the use of gross value

added5 (GVA) econometric forecasts to forecast growth arisings over time.

4.41 Cheshire East C&I waste arisings were therefore forecast to 2030 based on the GVA forecasts

from the Cheshire & Warrington Econometric Model (CWEM).

4.42 This model was updated between autumn 2013 and spring 2014 and maintained and operated

by Cheshire East Council. The model results are consistent with Cambridge Econometrics’ (the model

supplier) UK regional forecast of November 2013. The projections of this model are based to a large

extent on past trends and past relationships, and assume that these past trends and relationships

will continue into the future.

4.43 The model does not take into account of the impacts that projects, policies or initiatives may

have on future economic changes and does not account for national and global economic changes

that have occurred (or evidence that has become available) since November 2013. The projections

however do take into account the 2008-2009 UK (and global) recessions, the subsequent period of

relatively flat economic growth (2009 -2012) and the resumption of strong growth in 2013.

4.44 In order to apply the employment and GVA forecasts from the CWEM model to the C&I

baseline estimates for Cheshire East, the sectors in the CWEM were restructured to fit the 9 sectors

in the C&I arisings are based. This is possible because both sets of sector classifications are part of

the Standard Industrial Classification system as developed by the ONS.

Results

4.45 Using the above methodology, the following forecasts were produced for total C&I arisings in

Cheshire East:

Table 15: Summary of forecasts of C&I Waste arisings in Cheshire East (tonnes)

Year 2012 2015 2020 2025 2030

Estimated total C&I Arisings (tonnes)

514,182 523,700 533,823 542,671 542,671

5 GVA is a measure of economic output. It measures the contribution to the economy of each individual producer, industry

or sector in the United Kingdom. Unlike Gross Domestic Product (GDP), GVA can be estimated at subnational level (for example, regional or Local Authority level). GVA is equal to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) plus subsidies on products less taxes on products. For further details, see the Office for National Statistics' explanation of GVA and GDP: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/method-quality/specific/economy/national-accounts/gva/relationship-gva-and-gdp/gross-value-added-and-gross-domestic-product.html


31

The Impact of Increased Recycling

4.46 Results from the C&I surveys delivered since 1998/99 have shown a gradual increase in recycling levels. The last survey delivered in 2009 showed a recycling rate of ca. 60% and it would be expected, driven by landfill tax and other factors, recycling rates would increase over time. However, unfortunately there has been no data generated since which allows us to update this 2009 estimate. Therefore, for the purposes of this study, arisings forecasts per waste management fate have been generated for:

a. Baseline i.e. no change in recycling rate of 60% over time 2009 to 2030; and

b. Increased Recycling i.e. recycling rate increases to 70% over the period 2009 to 2030.

4.47 Note that as there is no data available to assess any changes in recycling rate since the C&I arisings survey in 2009 and the scenario start date of 2012, scenario b assumes a 2012 starting recycling rate of 60%.


(in tonnes to nearest 1,000) - baseline

Waste Management Fate 2012 2015 2020 2025 2030

Recycling & Reuse 307,000 313,000 319,000 325,000 325,000



Don’t know/not relevant 37,000 37,000 38,000 39,000 39,000

Total 514,000 524,000 534,000 543,000 543,000

Recycling & Reuse 60% 60% 60% 60% 60%


(in tonnes to nearest 1,000) – increased recycling

2012 2015 2020 2025 2030

Recycling & Reuse 307,000 322,000 344,000 365,000 381,000




Total 515,000 523,000 534,000 543,000 543,000

Recycling & Reuse 60% 62% 64% 67% 70%

4.48 These figures show that a relatively small increase in recycling rate of 10%, distributed

between dry recyclates and organic waste, can have a considerable and disproportionate impact on

the reduction in residual waste going to landfill or other residual waste treatment technique.

Increasing recycling rate from 60% to 70% over the forecast period, along with the impact of the

economic growth factor used to produce baseline results, shows a decrease in residual waste from

136kt to 70kt i.e. by almost 50%.


32

4.49 Used as maximum and minimum arisings per waste management fate, these scenarios will

therefore be used when assessing available capacity in Cheshire East.

Hazardous Waste Arisings Forecasts

What is this waste? 4.50 Waste is classified in the European Union Hazardous Waste Directive as “Hazardous Waste” if it has characteristics that make it harmful to human health, or to the environment, either immediately or over an extended period of time. The Directive gives an extensive list of these wastes drawn up by the European Commission, because they possess one or more of the hazardous properties. This Directive has been implemented in UK national legislations by the Hazardous Waste Regulations 20056. 4.51 Hazardous waste is a sub-category of municipal waste, commercial and industrial waste and construction, demolition and excavation waste classed materials, as wastes within these categories can contain wastes that are hazardous. 4.52 Clinical waste can also be classified as a hazardous waste. There is very limited data on clinical waste arisings as it is not specifically identified through the last commercial and industrial waste surveys for England or North West England (2009).

How much is produced? 4.53 Although the North West England Commercial and Industrial Waste Survey 2009 recorded which wastes produced by businesses were classified as hazardous, because the survey was designed to estimate total arisings from businesses rather than specifically hazardous waste production, the sample of hazardous waste producers was not large and significant enough to produce robust hazardous waste arisings forecasts for businesses in the region. 4.54 However, the Environment Agency, through their control of the movements and disposal or recovery of hazardous waste, has detailed records of hazardous waste arisings which can be accessed by the publication of their annual Hazardous Waste Interrogator dataset. For the purposes of this work, the 2012 figures, the latest available, were used. 4.55 The interrogator includes hazardous waste arisings from both municipal and commercial and industrial sources. Arisings figures for 2012 were therefore generated using the interrogator.

What happens to this waste? 4.56 The hazardous waste interrogator also provides details of fate (i.e. waste management

method) for those wastes reported. The waste management methods applied to the approx. 29kt of

hazardous wastes collected and processed in 2012 are summarised in Table 18:

6 More information at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/894/contents/made


33

Table 18: Hazardous Waste Management 2012 (tonnes)

Fate Quantity (tonnes)

Recovery 11,173

Energy Recovery 3,856

Landfill 1,152

Treatment 3,783

Don't know 8,583

Total 28,546

4.57 Movements data for 2012 displayed in Table 19 shows that there was no capacity for

treatment or landfill deposit of this waste in 2012, with waste arising in Cheshire East transported to

neighbouring WPA areas for specialist facilities:

Table 19: Hazardous Waste Destination, 2012

Deposit District Quantity (tonnes)

%of Total

Main Process Type

Wrexham 6,388 22.4% Recovery, incineration (healthcare wastes)

Cheshire East 5,050 17.7% Transfer (various waste types)

Newcastle-under-Lyme 1,761 6.2% Treatment (oils, plastics)

Cheshire West and Chester 1,670 5.8% Incineration without energy recovery (chemicals & oils)

Powys 1,240 4.3% Recovery (unspecified wastes)

Doncaster 1,060 3.7% Incineration with energy recovery (C&D Waste & Asbestos)

Walsall 963 3.4% Recovery (Oils, chemicals), treatment

How much hazardous waste is forecast to be produced in the future? 4.58 To produce forward forecasts of hazardous waste arisings, the GVA growth factors from the

Cheshire & Warrington Econometric Model (CWEM) were applied to the 2012 hazardous waste

figures to produce the baseline. The output arisings are summarised in the table following. It was

assumed that the breakdown of tonnages by waste management fate i.e. the proportion of the total

tonnage by waste management fate, was the same as 2012 throughout this period.


34

Table 20: Summary of forecasts of hazardous waste arisings in Cheshire East (in tonnes to nearest

1,000)


Recovery 11,000 12,000 13,000 14,000 16,000

Energy Recovery 4,000 4,000 4,000 5,000 5,000

Landfill 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 2,000

Treatment 4,000 4,000 4,000 5,000 5,000

Don't know 9,000 9,000 10,000 11,000 12,000

Total 29,000 29,000 33,000 36,000 40,000

These forecasts therefore suggest an increase in overall hazardous waste over the forecast period to

40kt.

Construction, Demolition and Excavation Wastes (CDEW)

What is this waste? 4.59 CDEW comprises of waste arising from the construction and demolition industries, including excavation during construction activities, and is made up of mainly inert materials such as soils, stone, concrete, brick and tile. However, there are also non-inert elements in this waste stream such as wood, metals, plastics, cardboard and residual household-like wastes. Because of their weight, the inert elements make up the majority of the total tonnage.

How much is produced? 4.60 Quantities of waste arising from the construction, demolition and excavation industries are

notoriously difficult to measure. This is because of:

4.61 On-Site Reuse: Due to the weight and considerable transport costs associated with these

waste streams, significant quantities of materials are recycled and re-used on the site where they

arise and, therefore, do not enter the recorded waste stream.

4.62 The Use of Exempt Waste facilities: For the material removed from site, a significant

proportion is managed at nearby smaller scale facilities where the waste management activity is

exempt from the environmental permitting system, and there is no obligation to report annual

throughput. Operations carried out at these facilities are considered to be low risk activities and,

therefore, do not require significant monitoring by the Environment Agency.

4.63 This means that data is only available for the rest of the material leaving site which is managed

through permitted waste facilities. For such sites, including landfills, critical data such as throughputs

and waste material types are recorded in the National Waste Data Interrogator (NWDI), which is the

main source of information on operational permitted waste management facilities.

4.64 It is therefore possible to obtain data on how much CDEW waste is disposed at landfills and

other permitted facilities, by extracting data for either ‘Construction and Demolition wastes


35

(including excavated soil from contaminated sites)’ or ‘Chapter 17’ waste. Chapter 17 refers to the

List of Wastes derived from the European Waste Catalogue.

4.65 NWDI reports around 113kt of CDEW (Chapter 17) produced in Cheshire East in 2012, which

were subsequently handled by a licensed waste facility.

What happens to this waste? 4.66 One of the main drivers behind the sustainable management of construction, demolition and

excavation waste (CDEW) is the geographical proximity of suitable sites to which it can be taken.

Because the material is bulky and has a low value, it is not economic to transport it over any

significant distances. If there is a landfill site where the material can be deposited closer than a

facility where it can be treated, the landfill site is likely to be used in preference.

4.67 The only data on quantities of inert wastes that is systematically collected is that which is sent

to landfill, although the material that is used for engineering purposes at non-hazardous landfill sites

are not necessarily recorded as inert. It is thought that non-hazardous landfill sites typically require

between 10% and 20% of their inputs to be inert material for engineering and capping non-inert

material. Inert material can also be used for landscaping and land spreading.

4.68 There has been a shortage of this type of material in recent years, and that this has

implications regarding the need for any additional inert landfill capacity to come forward. This view

seems to be corroborated by the industry. Inert waste that is treated on site and re-used, either on

the same site, or elsewhere, is not recorded in any single database.

4.69 Of CDEW managed through permitted facilities, Chapter 17 wastes data from the NWDI show

70% of the waste from activities in Cheshire East is landfilled, although a significant proportion i.e.

26% is recorded as recycled or reused. This is summarised in Table 21 below .

Table 21: Waste Management method (Fate) of Chapter 17 Construction, demolition and

excavation waste, Cheshire East 2012

Waste Management Fate Tonnes (2012)

Recycling & Reuse 29,853

Composting, AD and land spread 0

Landfill/Treatment 79,145

Don’t know/not relevant 4,318

Total 113,316

4.70 Movements data, also from NWDI shows the vast majority of this material is landfilled or

recycled within Cheshire East, with small volumes treated or landfilled outside of the WPA area.


36

Table 22: Destination of Wastes originating in Cheshire East (2012)

Facility WPA Quantity (tonnes)

% of Total

Waste management Fate

Cheshire East WPA 103,855 91.7% Landfill & metal recycling

Flintshire WPA 5,669 5.0% Treatment & Transfer

Warrington WPA 1,169 1.0% Landfill

Kirklees WPA 1,122 1.0% Hazardous Landfill

Cheshire West and Chester WPA

500 0.4% Construction

Total 113,316

How much CDEW waste is forecast to be produced in the future? 4.71 To produce forward forecasts of arisings, the Cheshire & Warrington Econometric Model

(CWEM). economic growth factors for the construction sector were applied to the 2012 baseline

waste figures to produce the annual forecasts to 2030.

4.72 The output arisings are summarised in Table 23 below. It was assumed that the proportions of

waste processed by waste management type in 2012, was maintained throughout the forecast

period.

Table 23: Forecast arisings and waste management fate, for CDEW wastes, Cheshire East 2012 to

2030 (in tonnes to nearest 1,000)

Waste management fate 2012 2015 2020 2025 2030

Recycling & Reuse 30,000 30,000 33,000 35,000 37,000

Composting, AD and land spread 0 0 0 0 0



Total 113,000 115,000 125,000 133,000 141,000

4.73 These forecasts suggest an increased arising over the period to 141kt.

Agricultural Waste

What is this waste? 4.74 The Environment Agency website describes agricultural waste as any substance or object from

premises used for agriculture or horticulture, which the holder discards, intends to discard or is

required to discard. It is waste specifically generated by agricultural activities. However, waste which

comes from a farm shop or a vegetable packing plant, for example, would not be agricultural waste

and would be classed as commercial and industrial waste (a farm shop is “Retail and Wholesale”

sector and a vegetable packing is “Food and Drink manufacture” sector). Some examples of

agricultural waste are:


37

empty pesticide containers;

old silage wrap;

out of date medicines and wormers;

used tyres;

surplus milk.

4.75 Since 2006, agricultural waste has been subject to the same controls that have applied to other

sectors for many years. On 15 May 2006, uncontrolled burning or tipping of waste on farms became

illegal.

How much is produced? 4.76 The latest available agricultural waste survey was conducted by Defra and the Environment

Agency in 20037. Because of the lack of up to date survey data, the methodology employed applies

waste arisings averages per agricultural holding from the 2003 England survey to the number of

holdings in Cheshire East in 2003 (sourced from Defra) to provide estimates of the 2003 agricultural

waste arisings for Cheshire East. This assumes that the average waste produced per holding at a

national and regional level is the same as the average waste per holding at the local authority level.

4.77 Similarly 2012 agricultural waste arisings for England were obtained by applying the average

waste per holding from the 2003 England survey to the number of holdings in 2012 in England. Since

data and information for 2012 number of holdings in the North West and Cheshire East was not

available, data and information on number of holdings in England, North West and Cheshire East for

2010 were used to estimate the proportion of number of holdings in the North West of those in

England and the proportion of Cheshire East holdings of those in the North West to use to estimate

the agriculture waste arisings in 2012. This method assumes that the proportion of number of

holdings at a regional level of those at a National level and the proportion of number of holdings of

those at the regional level is the same in 2012 as it was in 2010.

4.78 The 2012 agricultural waste arisings in England were then estimated by multiplying the average

waste per holding from the 2003 England survey and number of holdings in 2012. The 2012 waste

arisings were then estimated by multiplying the proportion of holdings in the North West of those in

England (as explained above) and the 2012 England waste arisings estimates. The 2012 Cheshire East

arisings were then estimated by multiplying the proportion of holdings in Cheshire East of those in

the North West (as explained above) and the 2012 North West estimated arisings.

4.79 Using this methodology, an estimate of 581kt agricultural waste arising was generated in

Cheshire East in 2012.

7 “Agricultural waste survey 2003”, Biffaward, Defra, Environment Agency, October 2003


38

What happens to this waste? 4.80 Using the data from the original 2003 survey, the waste management routes for agricultural waste are summarised in the table 20 with the vast majority used for land recovery and treatment and therefore not impacting upon waste management capacities in the Cheshire East WPA area:

Table 24: Waste Management method (Fate) agricultural waste, Cheshire East 2012

Waste Management Fate Estimated Quantity

(2012)

Land recovery/treatment - on site

570,964

Composting – on site 8,644

Treatment plant 142

Landfill 900

Hazardous Landfill 30

Total 580,680

4.81 As there has been no relevant data generated since 2003, it has been assumed that the original

pattern of reuse and disposal has not changed in the intervening period.

How much agricultural waste is forecast to be produced in the future? 4.82 Estimated quantities of agricultural waste generated in the future, by waste management fate, have been produced by applying the economic growth factors (as GVA) for the agricultural sector from the CWEM projections supplied by the Council. These are summarised in Table 21 below.

Table 25: Forecast arisings and fate, agricultural wastes, Cheshire East 2012 to 2030 (in tonnes to

nearest 1,000)


Land recovery/treatment - on site

571,000 538,000 562,000 603,000 603,000

Composting – on site 9,000 8,000 9,000 9,000 9,000

Treatment plant 0 0 0 0 0

Landfill 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000

Hazardous Landfill 0 0 0 0 0

Total CE 581,000 547,000 572,000 613,000 613,000

Radioactive waste

What is this waste? 4.83 Radioactive waste is any material that is either radioactive itself or is contaminated by

radioactivity and for which no further use is envisaged. Most radioactive waste is produced from

nuclear power stations and the manufacture of fuel for these power stations. This is referred to as

“nuclear waste.” Radioactive waste is not included in the definition of hazardous waste.


39

4.84 Radioactive waste also arises from nuclear research and development sites. Some also arises

from Ministry of Defence sites and medical, industrial and educational establishments. This is

sometimes referred to as “non-nuclear waste”.

4.85 This waste stream is divided into four categories as follows:

1. High Level Wastes (HLW)

These are highly radioactive materials that generate substantial amounts of heat. HLW is the

product from reprocessing spent nuclear fuel at Sellafield in Cumbria. It arises as highly

radioactive nitric acid, which is converted into glass within stainless steel containers in a

process called vitrification which is carried out at Sellafield. If declared a waste, spent fuel

can also be categorised as HLW.

2. Intermediate Level Wastes (ILW)

These are wastes with radioactivity levels that are higher than for Low Level Waste, but

which do not require heating to be taken into account in the design of management

facilities. ILW is sufficiently radioactive to require shielding and containment. It arises mainly

from the reprocessing of spent fuel and from operations and maintenance at nuclear sites,

including fuel casing and reactor components, moderator graphite from reactor cores, and

sludges from the treatment of radioactive effluents.

3. Low Level Waste (LLW)

These are radioactive wastes other than that suitable for disposal with ordinary refuse.

Radiation levels do not exceed 4 gigabecquerels per tonne of alpha activity, or 12

gigabecquerels per tonne of beta or gamma activity. (A Becquerel is the unit of radioactivity,

representing one disintegration per second.) Unlike HLW and ILW, LLW does not normally

require shielding during handling or transport. LLW consists largely of paper, plastics and

scrap metal items that have been used in hospitals, research establishments and the nuclear

industry. As nuclear plants are decommissioned, there will also be large volumes of this type

of waste arisings in the form of soils, concrete and steel. LLW represents about 90% by

volume of UK radioactive wastes but contains less than 0.0003% of the radioactivity.

4. Very Low Level Waste (VLLW)

This is a sub-category of LLW, consisting of the same sorts of materials, and divided into Low

Volume (“dustbin loads”) and High Volume (“bulk disposal”). Low volume VLLW can be

disposed of to unspecified destinations with municipal, commercial or industrial waste. High

volume VLLW can be disposed of to specified landfill sites and controlled as specified by the

environmental regulators.

4.86 The policy on management of radioactive waste is being developed jointly by the Environment

Agency and the Office for Nuclear Regulation which is an agency of the Health and Safety Executive

(HSE). Radioactive waste is not classified as “hazardous waste” by the Environment Agency and no

data on arisings and their destinations is held by the EA, as there is a different regime for its

regulation.


40

4.87 Most material can be disposed of at non-hazardous waste management facilities, such as

landfill or thermal treatment facilities. Unfortunately, at present, waste producers of low volume

VLLW do not have to identify which landfill site or incinerator is used for disposal of this material.

How much is produced? 4.88 Excluding that produced as wastewater, study of the RAS data produced by the Environment

Agency for 2012, which reports production of low level radioactive waste as part of the Pollution

Inventory, shows a single industrial producer in Cheshire East, producing ca. 200 tonnes in 2012. This

material is currently incinerated in a specialist facility, whose location has not been disclosed,

however. It is likely to be outside of the Cheshire East WPA area.

How much LLW is forecast to be produced in the future? 4.89 Using the overall economic growth figures from the CWEM projections (as GVA), the following

estimates have been produced for LLW production in Cheshire East to 2030:

Table 26: Forecast arisings and fate, low level radioactive wastes, Cheshire East 2012 to 2030 (in

tonnes to nearest 1,000)


Radioactive Waste Incineration 200 206 229 255 282

4.90 This shows an increase to ca. 282 tonnes of low level radioactive waste by 2030.

Waste Arisings Summary

4.91 Arisings estimates show baseline waste arisings in Cheshire East WPA area in 2012 of some

1.41 million tonnes, of which 13% is local authority collected waste, 36% commercial & industrial

waste, 8% construction & demolition waste and 41% agricultural waste. However, there is

considerable uncertainty in these figures, as they exclude the amount of waste processed through

waste management facilities that are exempt from waste management licencing, and in some cases

use aging and uncertain source data.

4.92 Forecasting these arisings to 2030 suggests that by that year, Cheshire East based activities will

generate between 1.46 and 1.54 million tonnes of waste.

4.93 However, not all of this waste will have an impact on the need for waste management capacity

within the WPA area as much of this material is low risk and has established long term disposal or

reuse routes, such as agricultural wastes in land spreading.

4.94 Therefore, the needs assessment will be based upon LACW and C&I waste production, upon

which much of the established licensed waste management infrastructure in Cheshire East is based,

and for which land will need identifying in the future to fill local capacity gaps.


41

Developed Scenarios for Capacity Assessment

4.95 To deliver the capacity gap assessment, using the LACW and C&I arisings forecasts developed,

two arisings scenarios have been developed for non-hazardous waste. These are summarised in

Table 27 and Table 28 i.e.:

Minimum residual waste scenario – uses data from forecasts based on LACW historical

data and C&I 70% recycling rate; and

Maximum residual waste scenario – uses data from the LACW number of households

forecast, and the C&I baseline 60% recycling rate.

4.96 The arisings associated with these two scenarios are summarised below:


2030 (in tonnes to nearest 1,000) – minimum residual waste scenario

2012 2015 2020 2025 2030

Recycling & Reuse 361,000 374,000 391,000 408,000 420,000




Total 692,000 695,000 691,000 686,000 672,000

Recycling & Reuse 52% 54% 57% 59% 63%


2030 (in tonnes to nearest 1,000) – maximum residual waste scenario

2012 2015 2020 2025 2030

Recycling & Reuse 361,000 368,000 376,000 385,000 387,000




Total 691,000 707,000 724,000 741,000 748,000

Recycling & Reuse 52% 52% 52% 52% 52%

These scenarios are therefore used in the gap analysis reported in section 5 of this report.


42

5 Waste Management Capacity

Introduction

5.1 The capacity of waste management facilities in Cheshire East has been compiled using

information from planning consents and applications, supported by permit data supplied by the

Environment Agency.

5.2 This data includes both existing operational and non-operational facilities, as well as significant

facilities in planning, and covered the following main facility types, i.e.:

Landfill;

Incineration and energy recovery;

Other residual waste technologies (e.g. mechanical biological treatment (MBT) and

autoclaves);

Waste Transfer Stations (WTS);

Materials Recycling Facilities (MRF); and

Composting and other organic recycling plants (e.g. anaerobic digestion).

5.3 Note that facilities of waste recyclate reprocessors such as glass recyclers, paper recyclers (i.e.

B1 users from a planning perspective) which are also exempt from waste licensing, are not included

in this evaluation.

Data Sources and Assumptions Made

Sources of Capacities Data

5.4 Key data on waste facilities within Cheshire East were supplied by the WPA with supporting

data from the Environment Agency (EA). This included, where available, details of existing and

proposed facilities and their operational or planned capacities.

Problems with permitted capacity data

5.5 Using EA permitted capacity data to assess overall capacity of individual sites can be

problematic. This is because permitted capacities are based on capacity bands into which Permits

are divided rather than the operating annual capacity of the site, and, therefore, the capacity

detailed in the licence tends to be at the top end of the charging bands. Therefore, many sites give

permitted capacities of 74,999 tonnes, 24,999 tonnes and 4,999 tonnes and it is likely that such

figures used are over estimates of actual operational capacities.

5.6 Therefore, where possible, via additional datasets and discussions with the site operator,

operating or working capacity figures have been used.


43

Converting void space to tonnes

5.7 Converting volume capacities into tonnage is not a trivial matter, as there can be considerable

variance in the types of material landfilled, its intrinsic density, and whether compaction was used or

not. For instance, each cubic metre of inert waste (such as construction rubble) will weigh

significantly more than a cubic metre of typical un-compacted household residual waste. A

conversion factor for inert waste of 1.5 tonnes per cubic metre has been used for this study, 0.85

tonnes per cubic metre for mixed municipal and similar wastes. These figures are recommended by

the PPS10 Companion Guide.

Regional and Cheshire East Capacities

Landfill

5.8 Environment Agency landfill summary data for 2012, published on their website, shows a North

West regional landfill capacity of some 65 million cubic metres (equivalent to 55.3 million tonnes at

an average bulk density of 0.85 tonnes/cubic metre), with the most significant holdings in the

Cheshire sub-region, i.e. Warrington, Cheshire West & Chester and Cheshire East WPA areas.

Table 29: Total Landfill Capacities (in cubic metres x 1,000) for the North West England region, as

of 2012 (Source: Environment Agency)

Landfill Type

Sub-Region NORTH WEST Cheshire Cumbria

Greater Manchester

Lancashire Merseyside

Hazardous Merchant

1,737 - - 74 3,134 4,944

Hazardous Restricted

-

-

-

150 - 150

Non Hazardous with SNRHW cell*

- 3,459 6,752 1,986 - 12,197

Non Hazardous 17,080 145 4,484 7,998 949 30,657

Non Hazardous Restricted

1,725 - 1,600 - - 3,325

Inert 10,000 786 2,944 150 - 13,881

Total 30,542 4,390 15,781 10,358 4,083 65,153

(*)SNRHW is Stable Non-Reactive Hazardous Waste


44

5.9 Merchant landfill sites are open for use by any business or local authority that wishes to

purchase the service. Restricted landfill sites can only take waste from specified sources. In common

with the rest of the UK, the availability of landfill capacity has decreased significantly in the North

West region, as evidenced by the figure below. This amounts to a third reduction in available landfill

void of 32 million cubic metres since 2006.

Figure 5: Landfill Capacity in the North West England 2004-2012 (thousands of cubic metres)

5.10 In 2012 the inputs to landfills in North West England amounted to 5.2 million tonnes (from a

peak of 10.9 million tonnes in 2004/5). At this 2012 input rate, the available void in the region would

be filled in around 10 years.

5.11 Studying the available data in more detail shows that of the 30.5 million cubic metres available

in the Cheshire sub-region, 17.3 million cubic metres is located in Warrington, 8.9 million cubic

metres in Cheshire West & Chester and 1.62 million cubic metres in Cheshire East. This data is

summarised by landfill type in the following table.


45

Table 30: Landfill Void by Landfill facility type, Cheshire, 2012 (in cubic metres, Source:

Environment Agency)

Landfill Type Cheshire East Cheshire West & Chester

Warrington Total

Hazardous Merchant 39,000 1,697,990 1,736,990

Inert 0 10,000,000 10,000,000

Non Hazardous 1,577,247 7,219,143 8,283,619 17,080,009

Restricted 1,724,625 1,724,625

Total 1,616,247 8,917,133 20,008,244 30,541,624

5.12 In order to establish the existing capacity in Cheshire East by site, primarily information

sourced from the Environment Agency (EA) was used regarding sites with relevant permits, with

supporting information supplied by the WPA. This identified the following operating landfill sites:

Table 31: Operational Landfills, Cheshire East

Operator Name

Facility Name Facility Type

Description

Type of waste

2012 Deposits (tonnes)

Landfill void m3 (2012)

Planning Permission End Date

(If Applicable)

Notes

3C Waste Limited

(FCC)

Maw Green Landfill Site,

Crewe

L04 - Non Hazardous

LACW, C&I & C&D

26,501 846,747 31.12.2017 Consent until 31st December 2017.

Brock PLC

Eardswick Hall Landfill

Site, nr Crewe

L01 - Hazardous Merchant

Landfill

C&D: Hazardous

20,400 39,000 31.05.2017

3C Waste Limited

(FCC)

Danes Moss Landfill Site, Macclesfield

L04 - Non Hazardous

LACW, C&I & C&D

87,753 35,954 31.12.2014 Consent until December 2014

British Salt Ltd

Hilltop Farm Brinefields,

Warmingham, nr

Middlewich

L04 - Non Hazardous

C&I 7,996 694,546 Facility accepts waste associated with brine extraction operations.

5.13 This summary shows that for LACW and C&I wastes, there are two key non-hazardous waste

landfills currently operational within Cheshire East. One, Danes Moss Landfill, is closing at the end of

2014. The other, Maw Green Landfill, was due to cease taking material in 2011, but has applied

successfully for permission to extend until 2017. Tipping continued in the short term while the

planning determination was made.


46

5.14 There are potentially further plans to continue tipping residual waste at Maw Green Landfill

until 2027. However no planning application has been submitted to extend this currently.

5.15 Therefore in the capacity analysis, it has been assumed that this landfill will accept waste until

the end of 2017.

Incineration and Energy From Waste

5.16 Thermal treatment of waste can consist of simple incineration, typically used for clinical or

hazardous wastes or incineration with energy recovery, which has become increasingly prevalent in

the recovery of non-hazardous wastes, with the steam produced by the combustion process driving

turbines to produce electricity. Advanced technologies are also starting to appear, such as

gasification and pyrolysis, which aim to break down residual waste into fuels for either on-site

electricity generation or for energy use off site.

5.17 The move away from landfilling residual waste in recent years, driven by significant increases in

landfill tax, has seen a considerable increase in the amount of available energy from waste capacity,

and in volumes of waste recovered using this technology both nationally and regionally. Returns

data from the Environment Agency in 2012 (the latest available) shows over 10 million tonnes of

incineration capacity in England, of which 0.6 million tonnes is in the North West region.

Table 32: Incineration capacity, 2012 (tonnes)

Incineration Type North West

England

Animal By-Product 100 1,258

Animal Carcasses - 2

Clinical 21 215

Co-Incineration of Hazardous Waste 175 814

Co-Incineration of Non Hazardous Waste - 1,297

Hazardous 115 223

Municipal and/or Industrial & Commercial 127 5,962

Sewage Sludge 100 333

Total 638 10,103

5.18 As shown in the table above, of the 638kt capacity available in the North West region, 127kt is

available for municipal and/or commercial and industrial waste.

5.19 None of this operational capacity is located in Cheshire East, and there are no pending planning

applications.

Organic Waste Recycling (Composting, Anaerobic Digestion)

5.20 The biodegradation of organic wastes such as discarded food, garden vegetation, crop waste

etc., can produce an output for conditioning and fertilizing soil for agricultural, horticultural or

domestic use via composting or similar facilities. Various types of organic waste recycling facility


47

exist including windrow composting, in-vessel composting and anaerobic digestion. Windrow

composting is used primarily for the biodegradation of garden and crop waste and other vegetable

based materials, whilst in-vessel composting and anaerobic digestion facilities can also take kitchen

and commercial food waste as long as they meet the requirements of the Animal By Products

regulations.

5.21 Environment Agency returns data for 2012 reports that of inputs of 396kt into composting sites

in the North West region, 130kt was to sites in the Cheshire sub-region. From this data, sites

identified in Cheshire East are summarised in Table 33 below. Operational annual capacity, which is

used for the gap analysis, is derived from discussion with the operator or waste inputs from the

NWDI, and reflect the working capacity of the facility, as opposed to permitted capacity which can

include storage capacities.

Table 33: Organic Waste Processing Capacity, 2012 (tonnes)

Site Name Facility Type Waste Type Permitted annual

capacity per site

2012 Deposits Operational annual

capacity (*)

C R J Services Ltd. nr Sandbach

Composting LACW & C&I 20,000 13,060 15,270

W G R Ltd. nr Nantwich

Composting LACW & C&I 74,999 14,656 11,931

H S F Recycling Ltd. Scholar Green , nr

Alsager Composting LACW 74,999 21,250 19,344

Nick Brookes, Wardle, nr Nantwich

Composting C&I 299,999 1,766 1,609

P G & H M Jackson, Ashley, nr

Altrincham Composting Farm waste 499 15 15

Reaseheath College, Nantwich

Anaerobic Digestion

Animal slurry No data

Demonstration unit

processing waste from the college

14,150 (**)

APS Salads, Alderley Edge

Anaerobic Digestion

Crop waste

Industrial facility not

available for external

wastes

No data 15,000 (**)

Twemlow (in planning), nr

Holmes Chapel Anaerobic Digestion

Slurry, crop waste and food waste

Not yet determined; not included

in forecast

NA 46,800

(*) operating capacity either based on information from the operator are calculated as an average of the inputs in 2012,

2011 and 2012.

(**) AD capacity not included in total as not generally available to externally generated wastes


48

5.22 These figures therefore demonstrate a total windrow composting capacity in Cheshire East of

some 48,000 tonnes, which can take garden waste and vegetables wastes, but cannot take non-

vegetable food waste as input. For anaerobic digestion which can take non-vegetable food wastes,

the two facilities available do not have capacity for externally generated wastes and therefore have

not been included in this analysis.

Material Recovery Facilities (MRF)

5.23 Where recyclates such as plastics, metals, paper, cardboard, glass are collected as mixed

streams, or “co-mingled”, material recovery facilities or MRFs, are required to separate the

individual material streams so they can be reprocessed and reused. Facilities usually have a degree

of automation involved, although manual handling and separation of some materials is also typically

practised.

5.24 Similarly “dirty MRFs” can be used to separate recyclates from a residual waste stream.

5.25 The provision of material recovery facilities, for the separation of recyclates for recycling

operations elsewhere, in Cheshire East is summarised in the Table 34 below:

Table 34: MRF capacity, 2012 (tonnes)

Status Site Name Waste Type

Permitting annual capacity

2012 Deposits Operational annual capacity (*)

Operational Pyms Lane MRF, Crewe

LACW 75,000 (?) No data 50,000

Recently approved (planning ref. 10/0692W)

Maw Green MRF, Crewe

LACW & C&I

N.a N.a. 75,000


2011 and 2012.

5.26 These show the operation of a single LACW MRF with a 50,000 tonne operating capacity, plus

planning permission for a 75,000 tonnes dirty MRF associated with the landfill at Maw Green. The

“pre-treatment” requirement of the Landfill Regulations came into force on 30th October 2007 and

such a facility can provide this pre-treatment while maximising the separation of recyclates from

material that is subsequently landfilled.

Transfer Stations

5.27 Transfer stations provide storage and bulking of wastes to allow cost effective transport of

waste collected by collection vehicles to waste management facilities further afield. Transfer stations

can receive and bulk both residual waste streams and separated recyclates depending upon the local

situation and requirements.

5.28 Cheshire East has considerable provision for transfer and bulking stations as summarised in the

Table 35. Facilities exist for hazardous, clinical, LACW and C&I wastes. For economic and


49

environmental reasons it is usual that such facilities are used to bulk materials before further

transport onto final landfill disposal or energy recovery sites. In some cases, a degree of separation

of recyclates from inputs streams may also take place to further decrease the need for bulked

transport and retrieve valuable materials for sales into the recycling markets.

Table 35: Transfer Station Capacity, 2012 (tonnes)

Status Site Name Facility Type Waste Type


2012 Deposits

Operational annual capacity (*)

Operational Crewe Clinical Waste Transfer Station

Transfer Haz Clinical waste 74,999 244 405

Planning Approval

Oldhall Brickhouse, Sandbach

Transfer Haz Hazardous 3,650 No data

Operational Alderley Park Waste Facility, nr Macclesfield

Transfer Haz Clinical waste 74,999 No data

Operational Pyms Lane Depot. , Crewe

Transfer LACW & C&I 75,000 21,251 19,573

Operational

Hassall Road Household Waste Recycling Centre, Alager

HWRC/Transfer LACW & C&I - 4,664 5,567

Operational Crewe /Pyms Lane Civic Amenity Site

HWRC/Transfer LACW & C&I 24,950 10,135 10,919

Operational Arclid Civic Amenity Site


Operational Congleton Civic Amenity Site


Operational Bollington Civic Amenity Site


Operational Middlewich Civic Amenity Site


Operational Poynton Civic Amenity Site


Operational Knutsford Civic Amenity Site


Operational Danes Moss Civic Amenity Site, Macclesfield


Approved, not yet operational

Danes Moss Landfill Transfer Station, Macclesfield

Transfer LACW 74,999 NA


50



2012 Deposits


Operational Danes Moss Landfill Transfer Station (pad), Macclesfield

Transfer LACW 74,999 NA

Operational Commercial Road Depot, Macclesfield

Transfer LACW & C&I 4,999 4,309 4,487

Operational Henshaws Waste Management, Macclesfield

Transfer LACW & C&I 74,999 No data

Operational

Nick Brookes Demolition & Waste Disposal, Wardle, nr Nantwich

Transfer C&D 299,999 117,450 83,565

Operational Enviro Skip Hire, Station Yard, nr Alsager

Transfer Metal/ELV 74,999 4,266

Operational Enviro Skip Hire, Sandbach

Transfer C&I & C&D 74,999 37,068 20,597

Operational William Beech Skip Hire Ltd. nr Sandbach

Transfer C&I & C&D 74,999 7,407 3,743

Operational L & L Environmental Limited, Sandbach

Transfer C&I & C&D 74,999 2,224 1,623

Operational Bill & Ben Recycling Centre, Congleton

Transfer C&I & C&D 4,999 2,333 1,744

Operational Brunswick Wharf Depot, Congleton

Transfer C&I 24,999 478 637

Operational Land At Basford Sidings, Crewe

Transfer C&I & C&D 250,000 173,414 197,041

Operational Secure It Recycling Ltd. , Holmes Chapel

Transfer Haz C&I 4,999 595 579

Operational Manga Fu Ltd. Middlewich

Transfer Haz C&I 4,999 No data 82

Operational Shredding & I T Recycling Ltd., Middlewich

Transfer Haz C&I 74,999 No data

Operational

1st Choice Waste & Metals Limited, Moss Lane, Macclesfield

Transfer LACW & C&I 74,999 45,375 48,224

Operational Scanlans Plant Hire Ltd., nr Nantwich

Transfer C&I & C&D 74,999 5,195 5,134

Operational Cheshire Demolition & Excavation Contractors Ltd.,

Transfer Haz C&I & C&D 74,999 10,014 15,202


51



2012 Deposits


Macclesfield


2011 and 2012.

5.29 Again, operational capacities have been determined using data from operators and averaged

2010/11/12 input data from the NWDI. These total 448kt of operational transfer capacity, consisting

of 45kt combined HWRC and LACW transfer capacity, 386kt of dedicated transfer capacity (72kt

LACW/C&I and 314kt C&I/C&D and 16kt of hazardous waste transfer.

Other facility types

5.30 There are a number of other types of waste facility in Cheshire East according to permitting

and planning data. This includes waste treatment sites, a biodiesel facility and land spread/recovery

options. These are summarised in the following table. Most are specific to particular waste streams

or co-located with waste producing facilities.

Table 36: Capacity, other facility types 2012 (tonnes)

Status Site Name Facility Type

Waste Type


2012 Deposits


Operational Middlewich Tank Wash

Biodiesel plant

Used Cooking Oil

No data 7,943 4,916

Operational Crewe WWTW (United Utilities Water PLC)

Waste Water

Waste water 250,000 44,652 44,812

Operational

Greenway Environmental Treatment Facility, Crewe

Hazardous waste Treatment

Hazardous 1200 No data 213

Operational BIP Organics Limited, Middlewich

Treatment

Hazardous /clinical waste

Unspecified No data

Operational Dry Matter, Gore Farm, nr Northwich

Treatment

Farm wastes & C&I

49,999 29,517

Operational Middlewich Tank Wash, Brooks Lane

Treatment Sludges, effluent 0 59

Operational Hilltop Farm Brinefields, nr Middlewich

Disposal – injection

C&I 7,996 6,856

Operational White Moss Quarry, nr Alsager

Land Recovery

C&D 250,000 29,655


52

Status Site Name Facility Type

Waste Type


2012 Deposits


Planning approved Hough Mill Quarry, nr Crewe

Land Recovery

C&D - 98,053

Planning Approved Gawsworth Quarry, nr Macclesfield

Land Recovery

C&D NA


2011 and 2012.

Exempt Sites

5.31 A number of waste management sites in Cheshire East have exemptions from waste

permitting, usually due to the small volumes that they process, or the low risk nature of the material

they process. Exempt sites are particularly prevalent in the processing of construction and

demolition wastes, wood wastes or in the operation of small on-farm composting facilities.

Unfortunately, there is little data available nationally and locally on exempt waste sites, both in

terms of which sites which have an exemption with the Environment Agency are actually operating,

or working capacity is available at such sites.

5.32 Environment Agency records show over 6,000 locations with an exemption to operate in

Cheshire East as detailed in the Table 37. However, it is not known how many of these facilities are

actually in operation, or what volumes they process in a given year, therefore it is not possible to

include exempt sites in the capacity evaluation.

Table 37: Site Exemptions, Cheshire East (as number of sites)

Exemption No of Effective Exemptions

Aerobic composting and associated prior treatment 166

Anaerobic digestion at premises not used for agriculture and burning of resultant biogas 11

Anaerobic digestion at premises used for agriculture and burning of resultant biogas 28

Burning of waste as a fuel in a small appliance 260

Burning waste in the open 755

Cleaning, washing, spraying or coating relevant waste 141

Crushing and emptying waste vehicle oil filters 26

Crushing waste fluorescent tubes 11

Deposit of agricultural waste consisting of plant tissue under a Plant Health notice 237

Deposit of waste from a portable sanitary convenience 87

Deposit of waste from dredging of inland waters 610

Depositing samples of waste for the purposes of testing or analysing them 1

Disposal by incineration 97

Incorporation of ash into soil 85

Manual treatment of waste 10

Mechanical treatment of end-of-life tyres 20


53

Exemption No of Effective Exemptions

Physical and chemical treatment of waste edible oil and fat to produce biodiesel 9

Pig and poultry ash 29

Preparatory treatments (baling, sorting, shredding etc.) 126

Recovery of central heating oil by filtration 1

Recovery of scrap metal 88

Recovery of textiles 5

Recovery of waste at a waste water treatment works 4

Screening and blending of waste 73

Sorting and de-naturing of controlled drugs for disposal 20

Sorting mixed waste 40

Spreading of plant matter to confer benefit 242

Spreading waste on agricultural land to confer benefit 566

Spreading waste on non-agricultural land to confer benefit 43

Storage of sludge 483

Storage of waste 136

Storage of waste in a secure place 234

Treatment of kitchen waste in a wormery 2

Treatment of non-hazardous pesticide washings by carbon filtration for disposal 16

Treatment of sheep dip using organophosphate-degrading enzyme 19

Treatment of waste aerosol cans 7

Treatment of waste at a water treatment works 2

Treatment of waste food 26

Treatment of waste in a biobed or biofilter 21

Treatment of waste toner cartridges and ink cartridges by sorting, dismantling, cleaning or refilling

5

Treatment of waste wood and waste plant matter by chipping, shredding, cutting or pulverising

419

Use of baled end-of-life tyres in construction 62

Use of depolluted end-of-life vehicles for vehicle parts 2

Use of effluent to clean a highway gravel bed 3

Use of mulch 140

Use of sludge for the purposes of re-seeding a waste water treatment plant 3

Use of waste derived biodiesel as fuel 44

Use of waste for a specified purpose 561

Use of waste in construction 577

Use of waste to manufacture finished goods 39

N/A 6

Total 6598


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Waste Movements

5.33 Available waste management capacities in Cheshire East for locally generated waste can also

be impacted by wastes from outside the WPA area being imported to take a portion of local

capacity, or Cheshire East generated waste leaving the WPA area to use capacity elsewhere.

5.34 The Environment Agency Waste National Data Interrogator (NWDI) provides some data on

movements of waste between waste planning authority areas, to give an idea of movements in the

local waste markets. Although generally a useful dataset, not all movements give a detailed

geographic waste source, and movements to those facilities exempt from waste management

licencing are not reported. Therefore the picture provided may be partial in some cases, but still

adds value to the evaluation of available capacity in Cheshire East.

5.35 Examining data for the Cheshire East WPA shows:

Around half of the waste generated in Cheshire East appears to be processed or disposed

of in Cheshire East (i.e. 58% by weight, 42% excluding transfer (to avoid potential double

counting) by mostly composting and non-hazardous landfill).

Of that handled outside of Cheshire East, main destinations are neighbours Staffordshire

and Stockport, both mostly treatment of sludge from waste water treatment.

5.36 Destinations of household and industrial and commercial waste (HIC) are given in the following

table, for 2012:

Table 38: Destination of HIC Waste Generated in Cheshire East WPA, 2012 (source WDI)

Destination Tonnes into all Facility Types

% of total Tonnes into all Facility Types

excluding transfer

% of total

Cheshire East WPA 90,619 57.5% 45,819 41.6%

Staffordshire WPA 32,077 20.4% 29,630 26.9%

Stockport WPA 28,928 18.4% 28,928 26.3%

Sandwell WPA 3,097 2.0% 3,090 2.8%

Oldham WPA 964 0.6% 964 0.9%

Cheshire West and Chester WPA

427 0.3% 379 0.3%

Bury WPA 387 0.2% 387 0.4%

Walsall WPA 271 0.2% 271 0.2%

Birmingham City WPA 268 0.2% 268 0.2%

Trafford WPA 161 0.1% 161 0.1%

Total 157,542 110,168

5.37 As previously reported, mixed recyclates collected from households are also sent out side of

the Cheshire area to the UPM Kymmene (UK) Ltd facility at Deeside (Flintshire).


55

5.38 Conversely, 79% of waste inputs into Cheshire East located waste facilities comes from

Cheshire East itself and the former Cheshire County area, mainly to non-hazardous landfill and

composting facilities. The rest of the inputs come from the North West region in general and from

close neighbours Flintshire, Stoke on Trent and Staffordshire – mostly to landfill. Material received

from further afield such as Norfolk is mainly inputs to specific waste management facility types i.e.

sludges for physical treatment and food waste for biological treatment.

Table 39: Source of HIC Waste handled in Cheshire East WPA, 2012 (source WDI)

Source Tonnes Received

% of total Tonnes received

(excluding transfer)

% of total

Cheshire (not classified) 253,988 58.1% 183,150 57.4%

Cheshire East 90,619 20.7% 45,819 14.4%

Cheshire West and Chester 22,697 5.2% 22,697 7.1%

North West (not classified) 22,051 5.0% 21,668 6.8%

Flintshire UA 16,231 3.7% 16,231 5.1%

Norfolk 14,276 3.3% 14,276 4.5%

Stoke-on-Trent UA 11,193 2.6% 11,193 3.5%

Stockport 1,465 0.3%

Staffordshire 1,321 0.3% 1,313 0.4%

Yorks & Humber (not classified)

627 0.1% 627 0.2%

North East (not classified) 481 0.1% 312 0.1%

Manchester 369 0.1% 145 0.0%

Peterborough UA 291 0.1% 291 0.1%

East Midlands (not classified) 254 0.1% 254 0.1%

Scottish WPA (not classified) 222 0.1% 222 0.1%

Total 437,164 319,225


56

Capacity Summary and Forecasts

5.39 Using the data collected on individual sites operating or planned to operate within Cheshire

East, and forecasting the total capacity per waste management type to 2030 using information

obtained on new facility start up dates and existing facility closure dates, Table 42 estimates of

capacity per year to 2030 have been produced. Using the corresponding arisings estimates, capacity

gaps now and in the future are identified in the following section of this report.

Table 40: Capacity forecasts for Cheshire East by waste management type, 2012 to 2030 (to

nearest 1,000 tonnes)

Waste Management Type

2012 Actuals 2015 2020 2025 2030

Anaerobic Digestion 0 0 0 0 0

Biodiesel plant 8,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000

Composting 51,000 48,000 48,000 48,000 48,000

Disposal – injection 8,000 n/a n/a n/a n/a

HWRC/Transfer 40,000 45,000 45,000 45,000 45,000

Land Recovery 128,000 n/a n/a n/a n/a

Landfill - non hazardous 214,000 140,000 0 0 0

Landfill Haz Inert 20,000 0 0 0 0

MRF 0 125,000 125,000 125,000 125,000

Treatment Haz 0 0 0 0 0

Transfer 421,000 386,000 386,000 386,000 386,000

Transfer Haz 11,000 16,000 16,000 16,000 16,000

Treatment (unspecified)

30,000 0 0 0 0

Waste Water treatment

45,000 45,000 45,000 45,000 45,000

Grand Total 976,000 810,000 670,000 670,000 670,000


57

6 Capacity Gap Analysis

6.1 By comparing arisings forecasts with identified capacity in the Cheshire East WPA area, a gap

analysis has been developed for each major waste management facility type as follows.

Capacity for Organic Waste Management

6.2 Organic wastes such as garden wastes, kitchen and commercial food wastes, crop wastes can be

recycled using aerobic composting (such as windrow or in-vessel) or anaerobic digestion. There are

established land spread reuse routes for organic crop wastes generated by agriculture which do not

impact on the waste management requirements for the WPA. Therefore, main sources of organic

waste are household collections and commercial and industrial waste, from, for instance, food

manufacturers, retailers, caterers etc.

6.3 Food waste must be handled in such a way as to comply with the animal by-products

regulations. This means it must be kept under cover at all times and processed at a sufficiently high

temperatures to ensure that the end digestate is safe for use on the land. These processes, usually

anaerobic digestion or in-vessel composting, are more expensive than the treatment required for

garden waste which can be composted in open windrows.

6.4 A number of facilities to process organic wastes have been identified within the Cheshire East

WPA area. There is AD capacity in planning but with no guarantee of delivery, plus current AD

capacity which is only available to take wastes generated on their operating sites ie. is not available

for externally generated wastes. These sites have therefore been excluded from the capacity

analysis. Therefore a comparison of arisings requirements with the currently available waste

management capacity shows that there is potentially insufficient capacity for the management of

organic wastes with maximum arisings of approximately 91,000 tonnes per annum and capacity of

potentially only 48,000 tonnes per annum if the planned AD capacity is not delivered. This excludes

the material specific waste management capacity of the biodiesel plant.

Table 41: Organic waste, Cheshire East arisings and capacity forecasts, 2012 - 2030 (to nearest

1,000 tonnes)

2012 2015 2020 2025 2030

Organic Waste Arisings (min) 82,000 82,000 83,000 84,000 82,000

Organic Waste Arisings (max) 82,000 84,000 86,000 89,000 91,000

Anaerobic Digestion capacity 0 0 0 0 0

Composting capacity 51,000 48,000 48,000 48,000 48,000

Total Organic Waste Capacity 51,000 48,000 48,000 48,000 48,000

Capacity Gap (Max scenario) 31,000 36,000 38,000 41,000 43,000

6.5 The comparison of arisings to capacity suggests that there is potentially insufficient organic

recycling capacity in Cheshire East to deal with local arisings to 2030. If facilities located in other


58

Waste Planning Authority Areas turn out not to be available, then sites should be sought for the

development of new capacity within Cheshire East.

6.6 Additional capacity for the treatment of organic waste is required of between 31,000 tonnes per

annum and 43,000 tpa as shown in Table 41. Anaerobic digestion facilities can vary considerably in

their capacity, from 1,000 tonnes per annum upwards. Sites of 0.3 hectares can accommodate AD

facilities with a capacity of 5,000 tpa (such as the AD plant at Coder Road, Ludlow Business Park,

Ludlow) or a capacity of 18,000 tpa as at the facility at Rogerstone, Caerphilly.

6.7 One larger facility occupying a site of 2 ha could therefore manage in excess of 43,000 tpa of

organic wastes. The capacity gap could also be filled through the development of two smaller

facilities on sites of 0.3 ha each.

6.8 The authority is likely to collect food waste with garden waste due to the economics of

collecting in a rural authority and ease to the householder. If collected as a combined waste in this

way, an AD plant of 50 – 60,000 tonnes would be required but this could be accommodated on a

single 2ha site. Cheshire East waste strategy looks to utilise dry AD for the processing of comingled

garden food waste.

6.9 In the selection of a site for waste management, it is important that vehicular access is adequate

and that routes to the site are appropriate for industrial traffic and do not conflict with sensitive

uses such as housing. The immediate area around a waste management site should also be

safeguarded from sensitive development to avoid conflicts of uses and complaints about noise or

odour. Industrial sites are generally appropriate for modern waste management facilities, but

existing buildings rarely have sufficient eaves height for the development of waste management

facilities.

Capacity for Recycling

6.10 In general, recyclates such as plastics, metals, paper and cardboard, glass, are collected for

recycling either as a segregated single material waste stream, or as a mixture of recyclates i.e.: co-

mingled. Co-mingled waste streams therefore need additional processing to segregate the individual

recyclates for further processing by material specific recyclers or reprocessors. These types of facility

are termed material recovery facilities (MRF).

6.11 Assessing the capacity requirements for recycling waste can be problematic as in general much

of the recyclate segregated by businesses for recycling is transported directly to the recycler without

passing through a transfer station or other licenced waste management facility. As recyclers tend to

be exempt from waste management licencing, this means that the data on these arisings, transfers

and capacities is lost from the usual Environment Agency waste site returns data. Potential supply

routes for collected recyclates are summarised in Figure 6 below:


59

Figure 6: Potential Routes of Recycling

Segregated Recyclates

Mixed Recyclates

Recycler

Transfer/Bulking Station

Transfer/Bulking Station

Materials Recovery Facility

Recycler

6.12 This means that MRF capacity is not necessarily required in order to increase the quantity of

materials that is recycled. It should also be noted that the delineation between facilities described as

MRFs and transfer stations is getting increasingly confused, as transfer station operators often

separate recyclate materials for recycling from their input streams, rather than just bulking for

transport to other facilities.

6.13 However, in the case of Cheshire East, for waste collected from households, mixed recyclate

co-mingled collections are made for which dedicated MRF capacity is required. This capacity is

currently provided outside of the Cheshire East WPA area. As this material is supplied via a transfer

station, full data on collected volumes is available via WDF. The data for commercial and industrial

waste however suggests that much of the material collected from businesses for recycling is

segregated and less likely to pass through a MRF or other licensed waste management facility.

6.14 Current MRF capacity amounts to 125,000 tonnes per annum compared with a requirement to

re-use and recycle up to 420,000 tonnes per annum. This suggests a need for significantly more

capacity for collecting and sorting recyclable materials, both from households and businesses of at

least 262,000 tonnes per annum (minimum scenario) to 295,000 tonnes per annum (maximum

scenario).

Capacity for Residual Waste Management

6.15 Residual waste is that which is left after materials have been removed or segregated for

recycling i.e. the residue which cannot economically or physically be recycled. Traditionally this

material has been landfilled in non-hazardous facilities, although energy recovery or some other

residual waste treatment methodology such as mechanical biological treatment (MBT) are becoming

more common as the cost of landfill increases through the imposition of landfill tax.


60

6.16 Comparing forecast arisings with likely future capacity suggests a clear gap in residual

treatment capacity in Cheshire East. While there is significant non-hazardous landfill capacity in the

Plan area this is time-limited and there are no recovery facilities for residual non-hazardous waste.

Table 42: Non-hazardous residual waste, Cheshire East arisings and capacity forecasts, 2012 - 2030

(in tonnes to nearest 1,000)

2012 2015 2020 2025 2030

Residual Waste Arisings (Min) 211,000 201,000 179,000 156,000 130,000

Residual Waste Arisings (Max) 211,000 217,000 222,000 229,000 232,000

Landfill Capacity 214,000 140,000 0 0 0


(tonnes)

6.17 This gap of between 130kt and 232kt per year is the equivalent of the input to 1 or 2 energy

recovery or gasification facilities.

6.18 However, research has shown a large number of such facilities are either operational or under

development in nearby authorities. Although these are clearly being developed for their own local

requirements, several of these may potentially have sufficient free capacity for the treatment of

residual waste from Cheshire East. For instance free capacity at the facility in Stoke-on-Trent is

already being used for the recovery of some of the residual waste collected from households in

Cheshire East. Facilities that are coming forward in the near future are shown in Table 43:


61

Table 43: Residual Waste Recovery Facilities that could accommodate waste from Cheshire East,

subject to agreement (operating, in construction and planned)

Area Site Tonnes Capacity

Technology Waste Types Status

Cheshire West and Chester

Ince Park, nr Ellesmere Port

600,000 Moving grate incineration

Residual LACW and Mixed C&I

Planning approved

Cheshire West and Chester

Lostock Works Site, nr Northwich

600,000 EfW LACW & C&I (as refuse derived fuel)

Planning approved

Derbyshire Lafarge Cement UK, Hope

52,560 Cement kiln Tyre chips, Calfuel (SRF) and MBM

Operational

Derbyshire Traceys Heat & Power, Hope

105,000 Cement kiln SRF, tyre chips, meet & bone meal and processed sewage pellets

Operational

Greater Manchester

Bolton Incinerator

127,100 EfW LACW Operational

Greater Manchester

INEOS Chlor, Runcorn (Phase 1)

450,000 Moving grate


Under Construction

Greater Manchester

INEOS Chlor, Runcorn (Phase 2)



Under Construction

Merseyside Knowsley Energy Recovery Facility, (Energos) Knowsley, Liverpool

80,000 Gasification Residual LACW and Mixed C&I

Under Construction

Shropshire Battlefield Enterprise Park, Shrewsbury & Atcham

90,000 Moving grate


Under Construction

Staffordshire Four Ashes, South Staffordshire



Under Construction

Staffordshire Stoke Incineration Energy (Martin Environmental)

200,000 EfW Residual LACW and Mixed C&I

Operational


62

Area Site Tonnes Capacity

Technology Waste Types Status

Stoke-on-Trent

Staffordshire Tarmac, Stoke on Trent

120,000 EfW Tyre chips, SRF, Waste Derived Liquid Fuel (WDLF) & Processed Sewage Pellets (PSP).

Operational

Wirral Hooton Park, Hooton

400,000 Gasification Residual LACW and Mixed C&I

Planning approved

(Source: LRS waste infrastructure database)

6.19 The location of these facilities is mapped in figure 8.

Figure 8: Residual waste recovery facilities (operating and planned) proximate to Cheshire East


63

6.20 Note that residual waste collected from households in Cheshire West and Chester is being

transported for energy recovery to a facility at Ferrybridge in Yorkshire, some 96 miles away.

It should also be noted that there is significant capacity in non-hazardous landfill sites that lie in

close proximity to Cheshire East. Table 44 gives details of the main sites that could potentially

accommodate residual waste from Cheshire East.

Table 44: Significant Landfill Sites in proximity to Cheshire East

Landfill site Operator Tonnes HIC Received (2012)

Void Cubic Metres (2012)

Arpley Landfill, Warrington 3c Waste Limited 609,340 7,319,792

Cory Environmental(Central)Ltd, Haydock

Lyme & Wood, Haydock 158,335 949,000

Gowy Landfill Site, nr Chester 3c Waste Limited 174,397 1,924,585

Risley Landfill Site, Warrington Biffa Waste Services Ltd 20,769 0

Rixton Landfill, Warrington Collier Industrial Waste Ltd

77,322 963,827

Walleys Quarry, Newcastle-under-Lyme

Lafarge Aggregates Ltd 95,562 2,867,495

6.21 The planning status of these facilities and therefore their ability to take residual waste in the

future, is not known and is outside of the scope of this work. It should be noted also that there may

also be local options available through the extending of the planning permission for Maw Green

Landfill to 2017, or if requested to 2027, to provide at least some of the required capacity.

6.22 It is recommended therefore that liaison should take place with the Waste Planning Authorities

in which these facilities are located. Discussions should identify whether the waste management

strategy in these authorities will be significantly impacted by the use of these facilities for the

disposal or treatment of waste from Cheshire East. These discussions should be documented as part

of the evidence base for the Waste DPD. Opportunities for managing waste in other Waste Planning

Authority Areas can be identified as ways of ensuring the deliverability of the Waste DPD. The

quantity of residual waste from a variety of sources that will require disposal or treatment under the

two scenarios is between 130,000 tonnes pa (low residual waste scenario) and 232,000 tonnes pa

(high residual waste scenario). While this might be sufficient to justify the development of a facility

for the use of Cheshire East, the capacity of facilities in the pipeline in neighbouring authorities

means that it is unlikely to be possible to fund and develop a new additional residual waste

management facility in Cheshire East.


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Requirements for New facilities

6.23 If facilities located in other Waste Planning Authority Areas turn out not to be available, then

sites should be sought for the development of new capacity within Cheshire East.

6.24 Energy from Waste facilities can be located on relatively small sites and manage a significant

throughput. The Lakeside EfW in Colnbrook, Slough sits on a site of approximately 2.6 ha and

currently has a throughput of 440,000 tpa. One site of 2.5 ha would therefore be sufficient for a

single facility for the management of residual waste for the whole authority.

6.25 As previously stated, in the selection of a site for waste management, it is important that

vehicular access is adequate and that routes to the site are appropriate for industrial traffic and do

not conflict with sensitive uses such as housing. The immediate area around a waste management

site should also be safeguarded from sensitive development to avoid conflicts of uses and

complaints about noise or odour. Industrial sites are generally appropriate for modern waste

management facilities, but existing buildings rarely have sufficient eaves height for the development

of waste management facilities.

Construction, Demolition and Excavation Wastes

6.26 In Cheshire East, most of the recorded CDEW is disposed of at landfill sites within the authority

boundary. Some of this material will be required as cover for non-hazardous landfill sites or for

restoration purposes. Sites for the treatment of inert wastes are often based at quarries or landfill

sites and for this reason will ultimately be time-limited due to the temporary nature of quarries and

landfill sites.

6.27 Because the data on this waste stream is poor, the approach from organisations such as WRAP

(the Government’s Waste and Resources Action Programme) is to look at ways of reducing waste

arisings from this source. Qualitative approaches to reducing waste generated from construction

activities have therefore been developed which significantly reduce the amount of waste arising and

provide solutions to the management of this waste stream. If processing and disposal sites for C&D

wastes are located a significant distance from the location of the waste arising, it becomes

uneconomic to transport the waste there and illegal tipping of these wastes is more likely to occur.

The results from studies into construction waste conclude that there is a need to ensure that there is

a broad distribution of appropriate sites to support the proper management of this type of waste.

Such sites should be able to accommodate storage and processing facilities so that material can be

recycled.

Radioactive waste

6.28 Most of this material is Low Level Waste or Very Low Level Waste and can therefore be

managed at non-hazardous waste management sites unless there is a specific prohibition against

doing so. The quantities of radioactive waste are small and not sufficient to justify the development

of new waste management facilities. Advice from the Planning Inspectorate is that policies on the


65

management of this waste stream are unlikely to be needed unless there is specific interest in the

development of facilities from operators in the area.

6.29 There are no nuclear facilities in Cheshire East such as power stations or defence installations

that produce higher lever radioactive wastes which require more specialist management.

7 Conclusions and Recommendations

7.1 Quantities of Local Authority Collected Waste show a reduction of 5.3% from 188kt to 178kt

over the period 2009 to 2013, even though the population has increased. This is common with

trends seen at national level. The recycling rate increased slightly over this period, from 49% to 53%.

The impact of both factors therefore saw residual waste (black bin) collections reduce from 96kt to

84kt from 2009 to 2013 (12.5%).

7.2 A significant proportion of recyclate collected in Cheshire East is sent to a sorting facility at

Deeside, outside of the Cheshire East planning area. The majority of the residual waste is landfilled

within Cheshire East.

7.3 The quantity of Commercial & Industrial waste arising was estimating by extrapolating the

grossed survey results of the North West waste arisings survey to the business population in

Cheshire East. Using this method it is estimated that a total of 514,000 tonnes of C&I waste is

currently generated in Cheshire East, of which approximately 60% is re-used or recycled.

7.4 Inert waste comprises a significant proportion of the total waste arising in the Plan area, but

because most of this material is inert, it does not pose a problem to the environment or human

health and is not regulated as strictly as biodegradable waste.

7.5 Hazardous wastes conversely potentially pose a more significant risk but arise in relatively small

quantities. The facilities for the management of hazardous wastes are usually very specialised and

will require a minimum quantity of material in order to be economically viable.

7.6 The results of this study show that there is insufficient organic waste management capacity in

Cheshire East to manage the organic waste arising currently as well as that forecasted to arise in the

future, particularly for food waste. Local capacity will be required if there are not facilities close by

to the local authority area which can take such wastes.

7.7 There is only enough recycling capacity in Cheshire East to manage 30% of the total estimated

arisings of recyclable material. Facilities in other areas are currently used, but additional capacity is

likely to be required if recycling and re-use rates are to increase in line with the new targets from the

EU in the North West as a whole. This is particularly important in the context of the new targets that

have recently been proposed by the European Commission for recycling and re-use. These targets

may be met through a combination of improved collection methods for both household and

business waste as well as by using Material Recycling Facilities to mechanically sort recyclable waste.


66

7.8 With regard to residual waste treatment, there is a clear gap in residual treatment capacity in

Cheshire East. There is a need for between 130,000 tonnes per annum and 232,000 tonnes per

annum of residual treatment capacity for non-hazardous waste arising.

7.9 There are no waste recovery facilities in the Plan area and the active landfill sites are all time

limited. It is possible that the life of these landfill sites may be extended over time, but this is

unlikely to comprise a long term solution for the management of residual waste. In addition to this,

efforts should be made to recover energy from any waste that cannot be re-used or recycled, in

order to promote the management of waste further up the waste hierarchy. There is therefore a

need to fill this gap either with a new strategic facility in Cheshire East or another facility nearby.

7.10 There are a significant number of such facilities planned or operational in nearby authorities

and several of these are likely to have sufficient capacity for the treatment of residual waste from

Cheshire East. Liaison with the relevant Waste Planning Authorities therefore needs to take place to

investigate the potential routes for managing waste from Cheshire East in these nearby locations.

7.11 Because there are a number of strategic facilities planned in the vicinity of Cheshire East, it

may not be economically viable to deliver a new facility in the Plan area, even if a suitable site is

identified. Discussions should therefore take place to ascertain the possibility of securing access to

the use of other facilities in order to support the production of a deliverable plan for waste

management.

7.12 The next steps in the development of the Waste DPD are as follows:

1. Draft policies to safeguard existing waste management sites or ensure that existing

capacity is maintained.

2. Draft policies for the reduction of waste from construction activity and for the sustainable

management of waste in new housing and commercial development.

3. Enter into discussions with other Waste Planning Authorities where there is a significant

exchange of waste or where there is likely to be such an exchange within the Plan period.

4. Identify ways of achieving additional sorting and recycling activity, including source

segregation for households and businesses and additional sites for sorting, bulking and

recycling waste.


67

References

European Policy

Waste Framework Directive 2008: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/framework/

EU Guidance Note on preparing a waste management plan:

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/plans/pdf/2012_guidance_note.pdf

European Review of Waste Policy and Legislation:

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/target_review.htm

National Policy

Planning Act 2008:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/29/pdfs/ukpga_20080029_en.pdf

Localism Act 2011:


National Planning Policy Framework 2012:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-planning-policy-framework--2

Waste Management Plan for England 2013 (and predecessor documents):

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/waste-management-plan-for-england

Planning Policy Statement 10 “Planning for Sustainable Waste Management (reviewed July

2014)

Current version is at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/planning-for-

sustainable-waste-management-planning-policy-statement-10

CLG Guidance on how to implement the requirements of the Waste Framework Directive

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-for-local-planning-authorities-on-

implementing-planning-requirements-of-the-eu-waste-framework-directive-2008-98-ec

Regional Policy

Regional Spatial Strategy for the North West (2008)

“North West of England Commercial and Industrial Waste Survey 2009”, Urban Mines for

The Environment Agency (March 2010)

Local Policy

Cheshire Replacement Waste Local Plan 2007

http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/planning/spatial_planning/saved_and_other_policies/ches

hire_waste_local_plan.aspx

Cheshire East Local Plan Strategy 2014

http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/planning/spatial_planning/cheshire_east_local_plan/local_

plan_strategy.aspx

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/framework/

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/plans/pdf/2012_guidance_note.pdf

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/target_review.htm



https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-planning-policy-framework--2

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/waste-management-plan-for-england

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/planning-for-sustainable-waste-management-planning-policy-statement-10

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/planning-for-sustainable-waste-management-planning-policy-statement-10

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-for-local-planning-authorities-on-implementing-planning-requirements-of-the-eu-waste-framework-directive-2008-98-ec

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-for-local-planning-authorities-on-implementing-planning-requirements-of-the-eu-waste-framework-directive-2008-98-ec

http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/planning/spatial_planning/saved_and_other_policies/cheshire_waste_local_plan.aspx

http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/planning/spatial_planning/saved_and_other_policies/cheshire_waste_local_plan.aspx

http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/planning/spatial_planning/cheshire_east_local_plan/local_plan_strategy.aspx

http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/planning/spatial_planning/cheshire_east_local_plan/local_plan_strategy.aspx


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Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester Councils - Waste Needs Assessment Report

2011

http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/planning/spatial_planning/research_and_evidence/waste_

needs_assessment.aspx

http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/planning/spatial_planning/research_and_evidence/waste_needs_assessment.aspx

http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/planning/spatial_planning/research_and_evidence/waste_needs_assessment.aspx


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Appendix 1 – Commercial and Industrial

Sectors and SIC codes

Sector Type SIC Range Sector Name

Food, drink and tobacco Industrial 150-160 Manufacture of food products, beverages and tobacco products

Textiles/wood/paper/publishing Industrial 170-193 Manufacture of textiles, wearing apparel, leather, luggage, handbags and footwear

Industrial 200-205 Wood and wood products

Industrial 210-212 Manufacture of pulp, paper and paper products

Industrial 220-223 Publishing, printing and recording

Power and utilities Industrial 230-233, 400-410 Manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products

Production of oil, gas, electricity, steam

Water collection, treatment and supply water

Chemicals/non-metallic minerals manufacturing

Industrial 240-252 Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products; basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations, rubber and plastic products

Industrial 260-268 Other non-metallic mineral products

Metal manufacturing Industrial 270-275 Manufacture of basic metals

Industrial 280-287 Manufacture of fabricated metal products

Machinery and equipment |other manufacturing)

Industrial 290-297 Manufacture of machinery and equipment

Industrial 300-335 Manufacture of office machinery, computers, electrical, radio, television and communication equipment; medical and optical instruments and clocks

Industrial 340-355 Manufacture of motor vehicles and other transport equipment


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Sector Type SIC Range Sector Name

Industrial 360-366 Furniture and other manufacturing

Industrial 370-372 RECYCLING (excluded from waste production estimates to avoid double counting)

Retail and wholesale Commercial 500-527 Retail - motor vehicles, parts and fuel; wholesale; other retail

Hotels and catering Commercial 550-555 Hotels, catering

Public administration and social work

Commercial 750-753, 853 Social work and public administration

Education Commercial 800-804 Education

Transport and storage Commercial 600-632, 640-642 Transport, storage, communications

Other services Commercial 633-634, 650-726, 740-748, 910-930

Travel agents, other business, finance, real estate and computer related activities

Commercial 730-732, 850-852 Miscellaneous

Waste Management Needs Assessment - Cheshire East Management Needs Assessment ... Refuse collection tonnages, ... Forecast arisings and fate, low level radioactive wastes, ...

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