Cambridgeshire County Council faces calls for a new recycling centre to end a “ridiculous” agreement to send the village’s waste 400 miles away for sorting.
South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC) and Cambridge City Council’s recycling waste has been transported to Newry in Northern Ireland since March 2025.
Susie Williams, a member of the public, asked Cambridgeshire County Council how likely it is that a recycling centre could be built in Cambridgeshire and when this could happen.
She said: “The trucks generate considerable amounts of carbon emissions and particulates, which is not really acceptable for two councils who are aiming to become net-zero.”
‘Not straightforward’
H&I county councillor Ros Hathorn, who also chairs the county council’s Environment and Green Investment Committee, explained that the waste market and providers “do not serve the East of England particularly well” and don’t have “sufficient capacity” to take their recycling.
She added the waste partnership, Recycling in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough (RECAP) which includes all local authorities in Cambridgeshire, is starting to look at other solutions.
Ros said: “It is not as straightforward as just building an industrial unit, putting some kit in there and switching it on – it’s a long, expensive process.
“It requires a licence from the Environment Agency, which is not straightforward to get.
“It needs to get planning permission and, as a new facility would create significant traffic in its area, there is likely to be objections to it.”
Ros said that the upcoming local government reorganisation “has slowed down the prospects of any big project being started in the near future”.
Debate
The council was asked to approve a new strategy document for RECAP and Cllr Darren Green said he was “very encouraged” to see it recommended recycling take place locally.
The Green Party councillor said: “I think this council must do everything it can to change this. Other counties can process their blue bin recycling locally – why can’t Cambridgeshire?”
Cllr Mike Black said that “everyone can see that this looks ridiculous”. He called it an example of market failure and “privatisation not working”.
He said: “I don’t like hearing local government review as an excuse for doing nothing or delaying things. We have a new government after 15 years of the same, we have a vast need for change – and we need to change quickly.
“I don’t think we should be saying that local government review stops councils from being innovative and planning for the future. Indeed, I think on these sorts of issues, we should be trying to get things done as quickly as possible.”
‘Not ideal’
Cllr Steve Tierney disagreed, saying “things aren’t always as simple as they appear”.
He said: “It’s not market failure when markets don’t deliver the outcome you want – that’s market reality – it would only be failure if they simply couldn’t do it.
“It’s not ideal to send things to Northern Ireland, I accept that. I would like to see a change that changes that, but only if it’s cost-effective for the taxpayer.
“If this works out to be the cheapest way to do it for the taxpayer, then I’d carry on supporting doing it – for the simple reason I don’t think we need to be layering costs upon the tax payer for virtue projects.”
Continuous improvements
H&I’s district councillor James Rixon told HIHUB the current waste processing contract with the company Re-Gen is “an improvement” compared to what was previously in place.
This is mainly because the company’s plant is considered to be Europe’s most advanced, runs on 100% renewable energy and can allegedly process 99% of all recyclable material.
However, as it is based in Northern Ireland, the need to transport the waste from Cambridge has been highly-criticised since the contract was awarded.
Despite this, James also explained the previous contract sold and shipped processed waste to other continents whereas Re-Gen predominantly sells back into the UK and Europe.
He added the company also continues to make improvements to its operations. As an example, at the last SCDC Climate Change and Environment Advisory Committee meeting, it was revealed Pringles tubes and toothpaste tubes can now be recycled.
And from next spring, it will be possible for H&I residents to place all types of crisp packets into their blue recycling bins. Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) plants across the country will also be required to accept and sort plastic film packaging and plastic bags collected with recycling.
Transporting
A report for the meeting explained there have “typically” been 24 lorry loads of recycling collected per week between March 2025 and January 2026. It also said 83% of collections are carried out through “back-hauling”, which involves using a fleet already in England to pick up recycling being stored at Waterbeach.
Over 50% of the recycling sorted in Newry returns to the UK and the rest goes on to other countries in Europe including Belgium and Sweden.
James, who serves as a Vice Chair of the committee said: “Efforts have been made to reduce the carbon impact of this first stage of transport. I think it is right that we identify areas like this as issues and we should continue working together to address them.”
Story supplied by the Local Democracy Reporting Service. Additional reporting by Louise Hepburn for HI HUB.
