Policy information sourced from Thurrock Core Strategy and Policies for Management of Development

CSTP29 – WASTE STRATEGY

Waste Planning Strategy

The Council will seek to drive waste management up the waste hierarchy by:

  • Ensuring developments minimise waste at source and maximise use of recycled materials. Within major developments provision should be made for local waste reduction, recycling and management.
  • Reducing waste arisings and increased re-use/recycling and recovery of waste. The level of biodegradable waste going to landfill will be reduced by increasing recycling and composting rates for all municipal, commercial and industrial waste.
  • Creating a sustainable network of waste management facilities that complements the sustainability objectives in accordance with the Thurrock Sustainable Communities Strategy.
  • Seeking to treat waste as a ‘resource’ and where possible use waste to drive forward local renewable energy objectives.

Waste Management Capacity

Provision will only be made for total waste management capacity equivalent to the requirements for Thurrock (including imports) as set out in the Core Strategy (Tables 5, 6 and 7) or latest capacity requirements as identified through an update of the regional or local data as a result of a review of the LDF.

Strategic Site Approach and Contingency

In order to meet the provision in part 2 above, the Council will identify 1 or 2 strategic sites for the co-location of a range of waste management activities within the broad locations of Tilbury – Purfleet and the London Gateway as identified on the key diagram. These sites will be located within appropriate employment and industrial/port locations and will be identified in the MWDPD and identified in the Proposals Map.

Where it is demonstrated that the strategic site allocations are proven to be undeliverable, or where the waste management capacity requirements cannot be met on the allocated sites, planning permission in non-strategic areas will be considered where the site/s are situated within:

  • existing waste management facilities, except landfill sites, where this does not lead to a reduction in the existing waste management capacity;
  • appropriate employment locations; or
  • appropriate port locations; and,
  • Where the sites meet the relevant policies in this Core Strategy and criteria set out in the policies in the MWDPD and development management policies.

New development for waste management will not be permitted in the Green Belt, unless part of a necessary restoration scheme and the proposals conform with Green Belt policy. The exception to this is the provision of small scale facilities which address an identified local need where no suitable sites outside the Green Belt have been shown to exist following an alternative assessment.

Recycling and Composting

Additional recycling and composting provision is required in Thurrock to meet a predicted capacity deficit throughout the plan period (see Table 12 above). Proposed new provision for different types and sizes of specialist recycling and composting facilities will be considered against the specific policies contained within the MWDPD.

Landfill

  • New non-hazardous or inert landfill capacity will only be considered where it can be demonstrated to contribute to the capacity requirements set out in the sub-text to this policy (as set out in Table 12 above) or the regional import approach set out in Policy CSTP30.
  • Proposals for new landfilling will be resisted unless part of a necessary scheme to achieve approved restoration levels at a mineral working site. The Council will require satisfactory restoration in accordance with the aftercare and restoration policy within the MWDPD and seek appropriate after uses for waste management sites where they are not proposed to stay within a waste management use. Proposals for landraising above approved restoration levels will not be supported.

Construction and Demolition Waste

  • Thurrock has a requirement for non landfill waste sites to deal with Construction and Demolition Waste. Thurrock will look to safeguard existing provision to handle construction, demolition and excavation waste at sites demonstrating high standards of operation in order to set benchmarks and raise standards across the Borough.
  • Permanent authorised sites processing Construction, Demolition and excavation waste specifically to create quality secondary aggregate and to recover soils will be protected in line with the safeguarding Policy CSTP32 of this Core Strategy and criteria set out in the Minerals and Waste DPD.

Hazardous Waste

Proposals for the management of hazardous waste will only be considered where there is foremost an identified need for the management of Thurrock’s own hazardous waste, but recognising that such a facility might also contribute to the management of a proportion of the region’s hazardous waste.

General Environmental Principles

The Council will reduce, as far as practicable, any negative environmental impacts that may arise from waste management proposals, as well as ensure that the recovery or disposal of waste takes place without endangering human health, especially from the landfilling of waste, through cross-cutting development management policies set out in this Core Strategy and the MWDPD. All proposals for waste management use will be required to conform with the policies and site allocations set out in the Minerals and Waste DPD.

Key Diagrams and Map

Sites will be identified in the Adopted Minerals and Waste DPD and identified on the Proposals Map.

For more information please see the Core Strategy and Policies for Management of Development