Plans to introduce a pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) waste collection system in Guernsey have been pushed back to 2017.

The States of Guernsey, the island’s parliament, had initially planned to begin charging households per bag of waste produced in mid-2016 as part of the British dependency’s new waste strategy, but that has now been called ‘premature’ by Public Services Minister Deputy Scott Ogier.

Enforcing the changes will require legislation to be changed, and a new law proposed by the Public Services Department of the States would give the dependency’s 10 parishes (serving a population of just under 66,000) power over residual waste and recycling collections, with the fixed fee going to them. Each would have to appoint its own contractor.

Due to the need for parishes to negotiate and award contracts, the decision has been made to push back the changing of the collection system to 2017.

In the meantime, the average household bill is expected to increase by around £8.40 next year due to an 11.5 per cent increase in the gate fees at the island’s Mont Cuet landfill site from 1 January.

Another change to the island’s waste service initiated by the strategy is closer to resolution, however, as five operators were confirmed to be on the shortlist to provide an ‘off-island energy recovery facility’.

Guernsey’s planned pay-as-you-throw system

Proposals for the new charging system were first made in December 2013 alongside the plans to begin exporting waste for off-island treatment.

Both moves were part of the new waste strategy approved by the States of Guernsey in 2012, which set a recycling target of 70 per cent by 2025 and identified export as the preferred option for residual waste.

The changes to the system of charging for waste would see fixed bills depending on household size replaced with a combination of fixed and per bags fees.

Planned fixed fees of around £68 a year would cover ‘universal services’ such as waste and recycling collections, but refuse and recycling would be disposed of in official bags that residents could purchase from local outlets. To promote the minimisation of waste, recycling bags would cost ‘just 50 pence’ compared to an anticipated charge of ‘between £1.50 and £2’ for black residual waste bags.

Food waste is currently planned to be collected separately, but it is not proposed to have a separate charge for its processing.

The average refuse charge on households, which only covers collection and disposal of black bag waste, is currently £108 per year. All costs for household recycling are currently funded centrally, but under the new system will be covered by the bag charges.

The Public Services Department estimates that under the new system, based on predicted rates, a family that puts two bags of residual waste and a bag of recycling for collection every week would pay between £250 and £302 per year.

The same family using one bag of residual waste and two recycling bags a week would pay between £198 and £224 a year.

Off-island operator to be announced ‘within weeks’

The decision over the five-operator shortlist could be made ‘within weeks’ according to the parliament.

Contractors have until the end of November to provide proposals and prices that include transport from the planned new waste transfer station at Longue Hougue, and the subsequent treatment at an off-island energy recovery facility.

The Longue Hogue facility, planned to begin operation in early 2018, will process household and commercial residual waste, which will be shredded and used to produce refuse-derived fuel (RDF), which will then be baled for transport.

The facility is expected to produce up to 23,000 tonnes of RDF for export a year.

The States of Guernsey is currently awaiting revised estimates from the companies bidding to build the transfer station before deciding whether food waste will be processed separately or included in RDF.

Details of new system close to being finalised

Public Services Minister Deputy Scott Ogier said: “We are only a few months away from confirming the final collection specification. However, the parishes and their contractors need certainty regarding the requirements for 2016, so they can start to finalise their costs and refuse rates. What materials are collected separately, and in what combinations, is key to that.

“Once we have that confirmed, contractors will need some time to plan and potentially acquire new vehicles, and parishes will have to negotiate and award new contracts. It was therefore considered premature to try and introduce the new collections and charges in 2016. We will instead make a decision early next year as to when to make the changeover.”

Regarding the increase in landfill gate fees, Ogier said: “We have known for some considerable time that waste costs in Guernsey will be increasing from what is an historically low level. It was true with the Suez proposal, and the earlier Lurgi proposal and it is true whatever option we could choose. It is inevitable but we will ensure that in future everyone has greater control over these costs than they do now.

“[The Public Services Department] has taken the view that, where possible, it is better to smooth any increases rather than store up sharper rises in the medium term. In percentage terms the increases are large, but the amount we all pay for waste services is, for most, still relatively little compared to other household expenditure.”

Find out more about recycling in Guernsey.