The sub-region is making good progress in reducing, reusing, recycling and composting our waste and each Council is striving to achieve the highest recycling rate they can – however even when recycling has been maximised there will still be rubbish left over.

This left over rubbish is called residual waste, and this is what Project Transform is looking to treat safely and turn into something of use.

In order to do this, Project Transform aims to provide a new facility which looks at innovative ways to treat waste, reduce carbon emissions and minimise the amount of rubbish going to landfill.

The solution we find will treat our waste in the most environmental, cost effective and sustainable way.

See options for treating waste.

Project Transform is a significant opportunity to improve how we manage rubbish in the sub-region. Here are a number of reasons why Project Transform was set up.

1. Value for Money

2. Practicality

3. Environmental Advantages

4. The Waste Hierachy

Understanding Energy Recovery

Each Council in the sub-region is making great efforts to increase their levels of recycling and composting. However there will always be some material that cannot be economically recycled or composted, so it makes sense for us to use the rubbish that is left over.

We can do this by recovering value from what cannot be reused or recycled – this is a much better alternative to disposal and can offer us a much more sustainable future.

There are many different ways that energy can be recovered. Read about options for treating waste

1. Value for Money

• By working together all three councils can achieve more for less. Economies of scale can be achieved by having one shared facility and provide better value for residents of the sub-region.
• The Government has set challenging targets to ensure that all waste disposal authorities in the UK reduce the amount of waste they send to landfill. This is to ensure that the UK meets it’s targets under the EU Landfill Directive. Failure to do so will mean financial penalties for the authorities exceeding their targets and the UK as a whole.
• Disposing of waste to landfill is also becoming increasingly expensive. Landfill tax is currently at £48 per tonne (2010) and will increase annually by £8 per tonne. This is in addition to the cost of landfill.
• The Government has said that waste should be managed in a way that is sustainable for future generations. By working together on a strategic waste partnership our Councils have a much stronger chance of achieving this.

• All three Partners have a history of joint working and each Council already sends residual waste to the existing Energy from Waste (EfW) facility in Coventry.
• Space for landfill is running out and the current EfW facility in Coventry is reaching the end of its economic life - therefore an alternative is needed.

• Project Transform can provide a modern facility that can help to minimise long term impacts to the environment In the past landfill has been used to deal with the UK’s waste; but we now need to reduce our reliance on landfill.
• Landfill is harmful to the environment – it produces methane (a greenhouse gas over 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide) which contributes heavily to climate change.
• By working together our Councils can manage our waste in a more sustainable way. This is why the Government encourages partnership working between authorities.

• At the top of the waste hierarchy is Waste Prevention. It is important to take steps to reduce waste - if we can reduce the amount of rubbish we produce there will be less waste to treat or dispose of.
• Below that sits Re-use. Rather than discarding an unwanted item it makes sense for us to find a use for it so that we produce less rubbish.
• Next comes Recycling/composting. This is taking materials that would have been considered rubbish and treating them as a resource, using various processing methods to produce something new and useful again.
• After that comes Energy Recovery this includes processes that treat rubbish to produce a form of energy, such as Energy from Waste or Anaerobic Digestion.
• Finally is Disposal which is a last alternative after all the above action has been taken this is typically disposal to landfill.