Suez makes changes to Cornish transfer stations 

Under the unitary authority’s £273 million contract with Biffa, the county will see weekly food waste and fortnightly waste and recycling collections from 2022 (see letsrecycle.com story).

In October 2006, SITA UK, now known as Suez UK, was awarded a 30-year waste disposal contract with Cornwall council (see letsrecycle.com story). This included the management of a network of waste transfer stations.

A spokesperson for Suez told letsrecycle.com: “We’re making changes across the transfer station network in Cornwall to support the council’s new waste and recycling collection service and to cater for Cornwall’s growing population.”

The waste transfer stations seeing alterations include those at Launceston, St Erth and Connon Bridge. Changes are also being made to the materials recycling facility (MRF) at Suez’s site in Bodmin to allow the an additional bay for food waste.

The spokesperson added: “At Bodmin, the main changes proposed are the introduction of a new dedicated food waste bay and additional bays for storing glass, and a refit of the materials recycling facility, which has been operating for 15 years, to modernise the equipment. The expanded permit boundary provides space to relocate the weighbridges, creating a safer and more efficient a one-way traffic system within the site.”

Cornwall

With a population of more than 565,000, Cornwall had a recycling rate of 33.3% in the 2019/20 financial year.

Cornwall council agreed a new eight-year contract with Biffa to provide waste collection and street cleansing services across the county in January 2020. Biffa was the incumbent contractor following its 2016 acquisition of Cory Environmental Municipal Services, which had held the contract since 2011.

While the transition to a new collection service to include a weekly food waste collection was meant to be implemented in phases across Cornwall from the summer of 2021, the council says the changes will not take place “until the following year” (see letsrecycle.com story).

Though initially due to begin on 3 October 2020, the new contract started on 1 February 2021 to allow time to make changes to the transfer stations where the food waste and recycling is delivered.