Essex household waste will not go to landfill by 2028, council says

An incinerator is being built near Witham in Essex to deal with black bin waste

A council has pledged to stop sending waste to landfills by January 2028.

Essex County Council also announced that nearly £1bn in waste contracts were up for grabs for companies in order to avoid landfilling.

Peter Schwier, the Conservative cabinet member for environment, waste reduction and recycling, said: "Current contracts involve the landfilling of significant quantities of residual waste, which is an unsustainable solution."

New contracts could commence in 2025.

The council said contractors would need to dispose of about 337,000 tonnes of residual black bag waste from Essex each year.

The former Tovi Eco Park in Basildon was supposed to process 420,000 tonnes, but was soon closed down

It currently costs the council £89m per year to deal with all waste - and the estimated cost of black bag rubbish is expected to cost taxpayers at least £42m in the forthcoming year.

A new incinerator is being built at Rivenhall near Witham, and operator Indaver hopes it will take 595,000 tonnes of waste annually from 2025.

A second waste operator, Viridor, also wants permission for its energy-for-waste facility in Tilbury, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

All residual waste in Essex is currently sent to landfill, exacerbated by the failure of the short-lived Tovi Eco Park in Basildon.

The plant was supposed to process 420,000 tonnes of black bag waste from local households.