BLAENAU Gwent will have to pay an extra £20,000 a month to have its waste dumped in Swansea, the council has revealed.
The Argus exclusively reported on Wednesday how Blaenau Gwent council is having to send waste to NPT Recycling, in Swansea, after its Silent Valley site in Cwm was shut down by the Environment Agency.
At the time, the council refused to disclose how much waste is being transported and how much it is costing.
NPT Recycling Ltd confirmed it had made an arrangement with Silent Valley to dispose of 350 tonnes of domestic waste a week between now and April.
The council released a statement following the Argus’ report, confirming Silent Valley had entered into this contract and that this would cost an extra £5.40 per tonne of waste. This includes haulage costs, the bulking of waste and gate fees.
The contract up until the end of March would therefore cost an extra £139,500 (or £20,000 a month) above the council’s original budget of £1,607,025.
The waste is not being taken to the Swansea site by council lorries, but by articulated lorries from a haulage company which can each carry around 20- 23 tonnes per load.
The cost has been identified as one of the “significant cost pressures” faced by the council, which aims to save £9m over the next four years.
But a council spokeswoman said savings could be made if it remained with NPT Recycling beyond next March as the waste is no longer going directly to a landfill site and so the council would avoid any increase in landfill tax.
She said the council, with its partner Torfaen council, was currently working on obtaining a contract for treating and disposing waste which would start in 2013.
Silent Valley was shut down last month, after traces of toxins such as mercury, nickel and ammonia were found leaking from the waste into groundwater.
Environment Agency Wales said there was no risk to the public, but stopped the site taking waste. It is not clear when the site will re-open.
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