Carbon Management Plan

Highways and waste and recycling

Highways

Highway carbon emissions come from the electricity consumed by street lighting, street furniture, pedestrian crossings and from the fuel consumed by the fleet and machinery used for maintenance operations. The council buys green energy for the majority of its street lighting and street furniture. However, this infrastructure still uses a large quantity of electricity. Reducing this use of energy and improving energy efficiency is an important goal for the council, and its long-term highways contractor.

The council's highways street-lighting is maintained through a Private Finance Initiative (PFI). We will continue to work with our PFI partner to invest in the streetlights to make them more efficient and reduce their energy demand and associated carbon emissions. Projects are also being conducted by the council that have a broader environmental impact, such as on-street vehicle charging, electric scooters and bike hire, which enable residents to make sustainable travel choices.

Short term (1 to 2 years)

• Use modern technology to reduce the energy consumption of our streetlights, including upgrades to LED lighting
• Remove unnecessary assets from portfolio to reduce our energy consumption
• Switch vehicles less than 3.5t within the council's highways maintenance contract to electric or ultra-low emissions
• Utilise hydro-treated vegetable oil (HVO) as an alternative to diesel in the council's winter gritting fleet
• Replace petrol driven hand-tools and plant with electric powered tools

Long term plan (5 years plus)

Decarbonise the plant and fleet used by our highways contractor by 2027.

Waste and recycling

North Northamptonshire Council supports and promotes the established concept of reduce, reuse and recycle which seeks to reduce waste arisings and promote recycling. The reduction of waste, particularly of single-use products, reduces the carbon emissions associated with their initial creation as well as their transportation and ultimate disposal. Recycling materials reduces the amount of energy used in their creation, as well as reducing the natural materials required in their production.

The council will continue to promote waste minimisation and waste reduction to avoid the creation of waste. This will be achieved through behaviour change activity and raising awareness amongst our residents. Our waste collection services will be designed to encourage recycling and reducing the amount of waste disposed through our general waste stream.

The council offers residents a comprehensive range of recycling options to facilitate the recycling of as many materials as possible. This is achieved through kerbside collections as well as our network of Household Waste and Recycling Centres.

North Northamptonshire Council has standardised most recycling collections across the former boroughs and districts and will continue this work so all residents can benefit from the full range of recycling services we offer. This will include the introduction of food waste collections across North Northamptonshire. This will help reduce the amount of food going into landfill, which releases methane (a potent greenhouse gas) during composition.

We will seek to reduce the carbon emissions associated with our collection services by switching to alternative fuels in our vehicles as new technologies emerge and develop.

Last updated 03 January 2023