New contracts to end landfill for Hertfordshire’s waste

Cllr Eric Buckmaster, Executive Member for the Environment, said: “We want to create a cleaner and greener environment in Hertfordshire, so being able to stop sending waste to landfill sites is really a significant step for us. Of course, we want to help our residents throw away less, and to reuse or recycle as much as possible, but we’re still left with around 250,000 tonnes a year that we need to dispose of, and these new contracts will help us do that in a more environmentally sustainable way.”

Hertfordshire residents produce around 540,000 tonnes of waste a year, and currently 52% of this is reused, recycled or composted. Although our focus is on reducing, reusing and recycling waste, there will always be some material left over that cannot be recycled, and the county council is responsible for disposing of this.

The new disposal contracts will run from April 2024 for ten years, with an option to extend for another five. The contracts are with:

• Cory Topco Limited (three separate contracts)
• Indaver Rivenhall Limited
• Viridor Oxfordshire Limited
• Veolia ES UK Limited

Currently the waste that cannot be reused, recycled or composted is managed through a series of short-term contracts including both landfill and energy recovery. Under the new long-term contracts, once planned new shredding facilities are operational, all of Hertfordshire’s residual waste will be able to be sent to energy recovery facilities, with none going to landfill.