Move to give parishes freedom over waste disposal

Seven deputies – led by John Dyke and including new Policy & Resources president Lyndon Trott – will ask the States to agree that waste collected by a parish contractor could be transferred to any site approved by its douzaine.

At present, waste collected by parish contractors must be taken to sites specified by the States' Trading Supervisory Board, which effectively creates a single island-wide system of waste disposal.

The signatories to the requete believe the current law is anti-competitive.

‘Guernsey has benefitted from a free market system for hundreds of years, enabling entrepreneurs to develop businesses and services to meet local needs,’ they said.

‘We seek to ensure that the States does not create de facto monopolies for waste disposal, preventing entrepreneurs from providing competitive offerings.

‘We are aware of several proven approaches for disposing of waste cost-effectively and environmentally sensitively.

‘We are aware of more than one local company that wishes to provide commercial solutions for the disposal of local food and other waste.’

Household and most business waste is currently packaged and exported. But the signatories to the requete also want the States to direct the board to look into options for processing waste locally and to avoid signing contracts which they said ‘would preclude or inhibit the possible development of local disposal arrangements’.

The requete could be debated at the States meeting which starts on 21 February.

Deputy Dyke has previously accused the board of blocking an unnamed company which claims it could deal with food waste using the larvae of black soldier flies at no cost to the States.

But board president Peter Roffey warned him and like-minded deputies to stop trying to interfere in the board’s appointment of a contractor to deal with the island’s food waste.