Until now, Alderney’s waste has been shipped to Guernsey, where it has been put in landfill at Mont Cuet. However, with the site approaching capacity, from October, Guernsey’s waste is to be taken to Sweden to be incinerated as part of a three-year contract.
As part of the tender process Jersey made a bid to take Guernsey’s waste, but it was deemed too expensive and not as environmentally friendly as Sweden’s, despite the closeness of the two islands.
Alderney has now approached Jersey to deal with its rubbish after concluding it was not ‘practical’ to follow Guernsey’s strategy.
The Infrastructure Department said the deal to take the island’s 600 tonnes of black bag waste, which would be processed in the energy-from-waste plant, would earn Jersey £90,000 and generate enough power for 100 homes. Under the deal, Alderney would pay £150 per tonne to cover processing costs.
However, in order for Jersey to be able to accept Alderney’s rubbish, the States Assembly must first approve a proposal which would enable waste to be imported.
The proposition, by Infrastructure Minister Kevin Lewis, is due to be debated on 6 November.
‘We need approval because, in 2010 when the EfW incinerator was built, Members were concerned that ash from the process would be buried in Jersey and create a legacy problem,’ Deputy Lewis said.
‘Since 2016, however, we have exported all EfW ash to the UK for recycling, so the main reason for Members’ concern has been resolved and I hope that they will approve this proposal.’
Infrastructure says that Alderney’s 600 tonnes of rubbish is a ‘fraction’ of the 75,000 tonnes of waste which is generated and incinerated on the Island each year. It adds that St Mary – which produces the least waste of all the parishes – creates 908 tonnes of rubbish annually.
Deputy Lewis said: ‘This is an opportunity to support our neighbours and for the islands to work together.
‘It is also an opportunity to generate both income and electricity; and to get greater value from the investment that we’ve made in our EfW plant by using some of its spare capacity, all by simply accepting one extra trailer of black bin bags per week.’
In August, it was confirmed that Jersey’s energy-from-waste plant met international standards for recycling. The ‘R1’ efficiency status, approved by the Environmental Regulator, confirms that the plant operates at a high efficiency level.
