STSB surprised to see parishes not consulted on waste move
The vice-president of the States body in charge of waste disposal has said he was surprised to learn that parishes had not been consulted over a requete calling for douzaines to be able to make their own arrangements for disposing of waste.
Although the requete, led by Deputy John Dyke, would apply to any sort of waste, it is believed to be most applicable to food waste.
One of its six signatories is Deputy Carl Meerveld, who last year promoted the idea of having a local company deal with food waste using the larvae of black soldier flies.
States’ Trading Supervisory Board vice-president Deputy Charles Parkinson said the board thought it was questionable what parishes would stand to gain from individual processing contracts.
‘Their parishioners will still be charged the same as every other household in the island for the costs that Guernsey Waste incurs, because the arrangements for that are set out in the law,’ he said.
‘Those costs are not going to reduce significantly as a result of this requete.’
He added that the role of parishes in arranging household waste collections, and that of the STSB which deals with the subsequent processing, was well defined.
‘That separation of responsibilities came about through extensive consultation with the parishes, and reflects their wishes at the time. It is therefore surprising if they were not all consulted before this proposal was made to change the law.’
He said that parishes would not be able to recover any costs which they might incur under a contract with another waste processor though their waste rates, as that only covers collections.
‘They would also have to take on all the contract risks that currently sit with the STSB, along with the additional administration, contingency arrangements, and so on. The douzaines do a wonderful job, but they do it on a voluntary basis, so do they want this extra burden?
‘And any firm processing waste will have to meet the relevant licensing requirements as set by the director of Environmental Health & Pollution Regulation.’
He said that STSB was fully supportive of maximising opportunities for local companies and that the process for awarding a new food waste processing contract was designed specifically to identify potential on-island solutions.
‘We invited expressions of interest from any companies who felt they could provide the service, and local benefits were a specific criteria in the scoring of tenders, which would give on-island providers an advantage,’ he said.
‘Unfortunately none came forward who could demonstrate the ability or experience to meet the requirements of that particular contract, but Guernsey Waste continues to work with local firms on a whole host of other contracts.’
One site has soldier fly licence
One site in the island holds a licence to process food waste using black soldier fly larvae, Environmental Health has confirmed.
This follows the publication of a requete calling for parishes to be given the power to decide where to dispose of their waste.
Lead requerant Deputy John Dyke said that while such sites needed to be licensed, he was aware of one that could handle food waste.
‘Operations which involve the collection, removal, transportation or handling of waste require a waste management or waste transport licence or exemption,’ said Tobin Cook, director of environmental health and pollution regulation.
One such site has a waste management exemption to use the fly larvae method.
‘This exemption has conditions which provide limitations to the nature and scale of the site activities, as is common with other WMEs,’ said Mr Cook.
