Contract will see waste sent to Northern Ireland

A council has heard calls to defer a recycling contract that would see waste sent 400 miles away - to a facility in Northern Ireland.

The new contract, expected to begin in March, would see waste from Cambridgeshire sent to a recycling plant in Newry.

In Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire it is estimated to cost more than £2.2m in 2025-26, split across both councils - but would see the amount of waste recycled increase from 80% to 99%.

Liberal Democrat city councillor, Olaf Hauk, asked for the new contract to be deferred until "critical data" on the environmental impact was available for public scrutiny.

He said: "We are told the new contract will increase efficiency from 80 to 99 per cent and most recycled materials will be sold on the UK market and this is encouraging.

"However, residents are rightly questioning the environmental and logistical impact of transporting waste over 400 miles from Waterbeach to Northern Ireland, a journey crossing the Irish Sea.

"You could hardly find a spot further away from Waterbeach within the UK."

Cambridge city councillors were asked about the new contract at an environment and community scrutiny committee on Thursday.

Mr Hauk said it was "encouraging" most of the recycled materials would be sold on the UK market, but questioned the logistics.

"Unfortunately, we have learnt that the operator of the local waste recycling facility in Waterbeach did not submit a valid bid, thus Waterbeach is not an option anymore," he said.

"This council has committed itself to fighting climate change... I urge this committee to ask Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Services to defer any new contract for our region until this critical data is available for public scrutiny."

It was estimated to cost Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire more than £2.2m in 2025-26 said the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Labour councillor, Mark Ashton said the scrutiny committee had "not had a chance to really debate or look at alternatives", as did Green Party councillor Elliot Tong.

Mr Tong said: "There is a shocking lack of consideration of the environmental impacts, particularly when it comes to carbon footprint, there is really nothing we can see from it."

Rosy Moore, an executive Labour councillor for climate action and environment, said a lot of work had gone into finding the best option and she said the new contract was the "best option in these circumstances".

She said she was "more than happy" to report back in six months or a year with data showing the impact and "totally disagreed" that there had been a lack of consideration about the carbon footprint.

Ms Moore said an additional 400 tonnes of waste would be recycled every month at the Northern Ireland facility.

An amendment asking for the contract to be deferred did not gain enough support to pass.

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