Municipal waste management strategy

Responsibility for the management of municipal waste in Lancashire is divided between the waste collection authorities and the waste disposal authorities. The duties and responsibilities for each authority are set out within the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Blackpool, Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Chorley, Fylde, Hyndburn, Lancaster, Pendle, Preston, Ribble Valley, Rossendale, South Ribble, West Lancashire, and Wyre are the Waste Collection Authorities.

The district, borough and unitary authorities, as waste collection authorities, have a duty to provide a number of services:

• The collection of household waste.
• The collection of commercial/industrial waste when requested.
• Street (and beach) sweeping.

Blackpool, Blackburn with Darwen and Lancashire County Council are the Waste Disposal Authorities. The county and unitary authorities, as waste disposal authorities, have a duty to arrange for the disposal of waste collected by the waste collection authority.

Because residents rely on both the collection and disposal authorities to deliver their waste services, the 15 authorities have formed the Lancashire Waste Partnership to ensure they work together to find better ways of handling and disposing of our waste.

Partnership working is crucial now in giving practical effect to the strategy by putting in place contractual and/or working arrangements to secure the agreed targets. Key to this are coordinating and communicating any changes to waste and recyclable collection services, effective service delivery of waste minimisation and prevention initiatives, and scheduling the changes to waste collection contracts to incorporate the waste network coming on-line.

The Municipal Waste Management Strategy was produced by the Lancashire Waste Partnership, but adopted by the individual member authorities. Lancashire County Council adopted its municipal waste management strategy in May 2009. 

Key features include the following targets and principles;

• Reduce and stabilise waste to 0% growth each year
• Continue to provide financial support for awareness raising, education campaigns and other initiatives
• Extend the three-stream collection to all households and to extend the segregated collection service to all households to include the collection of food waste for composting.
• Recycle and compost 56% of all waste by 2015, increasing to 61% by 2020
• Recover 81% of all waste by 2015 and 88% by 2020
• Reuse, recycle and compost 70% every year at each Household Waste Recycling Centre
• Provide a network of facilities to manage and treat Lancashire County Council and Blackpool Council's municipal waste. 
• Create new native woodland across Lancashire and Blackpool with 2.5 million trees planted over the next 25 years