First glimpse of how very posh our two new household waste tips will look in Milton Keynes

The picture shows the new futuristic-looking ‘supersites’ to be built in the north and south of the city, at Old Wolverton and Snellshall.

The Citizen revealed exclusively last week how MK City Council plans to close down all three existing household waste sites, in Newport Pagnell, Old Bradwell and Bleak Hall, by 2028 at the latest.

The aging faciltities will be replaced by the two greener,larger and much more modern ‘Reuse and Recycling Centre’ supersites.

Councillors are due to approve the multi-million pound investment tomorrow (Tuesday) and work on the new facilties will start shortly. Newport Pagnell and New Bradwell tips will close in 2026, while Bleak Hall will remain open until 2028.

Last year local people dropped off nearly 25,000 tonnes of waste. As the city grows, so will demand for offloading rubbish -and the council estimates 50% more waste and recycling will come to its tips by 2050.

At full capacity, the current three sites can accommodate around 395,000 visits with no room for expansion. This capacity will be almost doubled by the two supersites, which would accommodate 700,000 visits per year.

Other benefits to local people include less traffic congestion and less noise for local residents as the locations are not close to residential areas, as well as better and safer access for everyone - including people with mobility issues.

The sites will be greener and more sustainable sites and use solar power. At least one of them will be fully ‘off grid’ and powered by its own renewable energy provision.

There will even be a Reuse and Repair Shop where unwanted household items can be conveniently dropped off for reuse, giving them another useful life instead of being thrown away.

Interim Cabinet member for the Public Realm, Cllr Akash Nayee, said: “We’re dealing with more waste and expect even more as the city grows, so it’s essential we plan for this. These modern and greener reuse and recycling centres would offer broader facilities in a better location and as such should be more accessible and pleasant for everyone to use.

The city council has also published innovative plans to transform its existing waste recovery facilities in Wolverton into a state-of-the-art Eco Park that will provide more green energy to the city and reduce carbon emissions. One of the proposed new Reuse and Recycling Centres would become part of the Eco Park.

The facility will distributing heat naturally created by processing waste across the city into homes and businesses and include new technology to shred unwanted tyres into material that would be used to build and repair roads.

There will be a carbon sink forest that would absorb carbon from the atmosphere, and new facilities to deal with more types of waste, including electrical goods and other hard-to-process items, meaning fewer miles need to be travelled.

All this will turn Milton Keynes into one of the UK’s most sustainable places to manage waste, say councillors.