WASTE chiefs in Swansea expect to know in a year’s time what will happen to black bag rubbish once the city’s Tir John landfill has closed.
The last of our black bags will be dumped at Tir John, Port Tennant, in 2022 prior to the site being capped.
Plans will need to be in place before then to deal with the 37,000 or so tonnes of waste currently landfilled there per year.
A regional solution has been touted for years, but individual councils have black bag contracts with various providers that end at different times.
Councillor Mark Thomas, the cabinet member for the environment, told a council panel he expected to know the answer within 12 months.
The options, he said, were councils in South West Wales clubbing together to build an energy-from-waste plant, or commissioning an external provider to build one, or for Swansea to send its black bag waste to an existing energy-from-waste facility in Wales.
Councillor Paxton Hood-Williams said regional energy-from-waste discussions had been ongoing since 2004.
“Why has it taken so long?” he said.
Matthew Perkins, Swansea’s group leader for waste management, said: “It comes down to economies of scale.
“We could build a plant for 30,000 to 40,000 tonnes but it would be stupidly expensive.”
Cllr Thomas said there was spare capacity at a large energy-from-waste plant in Cardiff, but it wouldn’t accept waste from Swansea Council.
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