Arrangements for the disposal of household waste produced in our area are set out in our Integrated Waste Management Services Contract. The contract was awarded to Onyx South Downs Ltd – now called Veolia Environmental Services South Downs Ltd – in April 2003 by East Sussex County Council and Brighton & Hove City Council.
The contract will run until March 2033 and is worth approximately one billion pounds. The councils were awarded £49 million in Private Finance Initiative credits from the government to develop a number of new waste management facilities.
Waste Management Services Contract
Veolia has planned a complete approach to managing the area's waste. In addition to final disposal, this includes:
- waste prevention, reduction and reuse
- recycling (including green waste composting)
- recovery of energy from waste
- development of new waste management facilities
- management of the 14 Household Waste Recycling sites in the contract area.
Waste collection (the emptying of dustbins) remains the responsibility of the local East Sussex district and borough councils and Brighton & Hove City Council.
New facilities
To manage our waste successfully, there are various new facilities which have been built, or are in the process of being built, in the area:
Household Waste Recycling Sites
- Crowborough – replacement for a mobile site in 2004.
- Maresfield, Uckfield – replacement for a mobile site in 2009.
- Pebsham, Hastings – relocation of existing site, due to open at the end of 2011.
Waste Transfer Stations
Waste Transfer Stations allow effective movement of waste around the county and reduce waste vehicle traffic.
- Maresfield, Uckfield – opened 2009.
- Pebsham, Hastings – opened 2007 on the refurbished Reprotech site.
- Hollingdean, Brighton – opened 2008, with the capacity to process 120 thousand tonnes of waste per year.
Other waste facilities
- Materials Recovery Facility, Hollingdean – opened 2008. Up to 80 thousand tonnes of recycling can be sorted and prepared for reprocessing, per year.
- Woodlands Composting Plant, Whitesmith – opened 2009. Green waste from kerbside collections and recycling sites is turned into a quality soil conditioner.
- Energy Recovery Facility, Newhaven – opened 2011. This facility will burn up to 210 thousand tonnes of waste, per year which can not be recycled and that would otherwise be delivered to landfill sites. The electricity produced will be sold to the National Grid and will supply about 25,000 homes.
If the amount of waste we create continues to grow, there may be a need for an extra facility.
You can visit these facilities. For details, contact Veolia Environmental Services.
For more information, read the full Integrated Waste Management Services Contract and supporting schedules.
Business/trade waste
We do not manage business or trade waste, but you can find more information about this and fly tipping on our business waste page.
Abandoned vehicles
Around 2,500 vehicles are abandoned in East Sussex each year. We are working with the local district and borough councils in a countywide partnership to deal with this problem.
The Waste Management Services Contract takes into account new laws that will help to make the car dismantling industry cleaner and more environmentally sensitive.
East Sussex County Council