Black bin bag rubbish soon to enterbulk recycling centre

The final hurdle to the controversial move of processing black bin rubbish at Powys County Council’s North Powys Bulking Facility near Newtown has been successfully overcome.

Earlier this month, Welsh Government planning inspectors stated they agreed with the decision made by Powys county planners that there is no need for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to support the controversial proposal to process Black Bin rubbish at the facility on the outskirts of Abermule.

In December, the council’s principal engineer, Simon Kendrick, made a request to the local planning authority for a “screening opinion” on the proposal.

When the bulking facility and business units were approved by the councillors on the Planning committee in August 2018, no specific mention of black bin waste was included in the permission for the £4.6 million facility.

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) issued an environmental permit in July 2023, which allows the council to operate the site and deal with 22,500 tonnes of waste a year.

Arguments had been put forward by WRAP, which supports Welsh local authorities on recycling issues on behalf of the council that permits and regulates the types and quantities of waste at the facility.

As they believed there would be no change in the permitted operations at the site, the EIA was not needed.

In January, planning officer Rhian Griffiths agreed and stated that: “No environmental impact assessment statement will be required.”

However, the decision was referred to Welsh Government planning inspectors at PEDW (Planning and Environment Decisions Wales) who issued their decision earlier this month.

On April 17, Welsh Government planning inspectors said that the “EIA is not required.”

The facility receives recycling collected from households across Montgomeryshire, where it will be squashed together or “bulked,” so that it can be more easily transported to processors to turn into new products.

Processing black bin rubbish at Abermule is supposed to save the council £100,000 over two years.

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporting Service