News

Council to spend half a million pounds on self-operating bin lorries in Mansfield

By Latifa Yedroudj, Junior Local Democracy Reporter

---

Mansfield District Council is to spend half a million pounds on new self-operating bin lorries.

Councillors will meet on Tuesday (April 29) to approve plans to buy six new food waste collection vehicles costing £559,230.

The Terberg ORUS food waste collection vehicles are smaller than regular bin lorries and will be able to reach tighter streets in residential areas.

They have a bin lift mechanism that can self-carry a bin’s contents into the back of the vehicle. This means workers do not need to lift the bins to get them to empty.

They do not require a full crew, unlike a regular 26-tonne bin lorry, and can be operated by one driver.

The Terberg ORUS vehicles are built on chassis ranging from 3.5 tonnes to 7.5 tonnes. It is not clear which model of bin lorries the council will be purchasing.

It comes as part of the Government’s new Simpler Recycling requirements, saying food waste must be collected from households weekly by 2027.

The costs of the bin lorries will be covered by a Government grant from DEFRA (The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs).

The collected food waste will then be recycled through anaerobic digestion- a process which turns it into biogas and digestate.

Biogas is a form of renewable energy and digestate is a solid or liquid material rich in nutrients which can be used as a natural fertiliser.

Cllr Andrew Burgin (Lab), the Portfolio Holder for the Environment & Leisure at Mansfield District Council, said the smaller vehicles will also use less fuel and are “better for the environment”.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service said: “We’re looking to approve the plans to order these bin lorries for food waste collections.

“They’ll be smaller than regular bin lorries and give us a better capacity to get to hard to reach areas.

“The main reason for this is so we have appropriate sized vehicles to deliver food waste collection services.

“There is new legislation where all councils have got to offer food waste collection services weekly – and we have to deliver this service in 2027.

“It will give residents an option to dispose their food waste, which can then be taken to an anaerobic digester to be converted to fuel.

“We will be doing weekly food waste collections so we need a smaller vehicle.

“It’s not as expensive to run, uses less fuel and is better for the environment.”