Agenda item

A briefing will be provided by the Head of Cleansing and Open Spaces on the Government’s Resources and Waste Strategy and the effect that this will have on the Council’s Zero Waste Strategy.

The Lead Member for Performance of Major Contracts, the Strategic Director of Neighbourhoods and Community Wellbeing and the Head of Cleansing and Open Spaces provided a briefing on the Government’s Resources and Waste Strategy and the effect that it would have on the Council’s Zero Waste Strategy (supplementary report to the agenda filed with these minutes) and provided the following responses to issues raised:

(i)            The Borough had not suffered from the scale of flytips associated with organised crime.  Most of the flytips in the Borough were of material that could not be taken to the County Council’s recycling and household waste sites.  Households and businesses had responsibilities to ensure that the contractors they used to dispose of waste were properly accredited.  The public could be reminded about the consequences of not doing so.

(ii)          The Council’s current arrangements for bulky waste collections were generous compared to other local authorities.  However, it was the case that doors were not accepted for bulky waste collections.

(iii)         The Council provided garden waste and trade waste collection as discretionary services and could consider establishing other types of waste collection.  However, those could have significant set up costs, for example the provision of skips for collecting construction waste.

(iv)         There would be significant implications should the proposed requirements in the Government’s Resources and Waste Strategy to provide weekly food waste collection and free garden waste collection be introduced.  For example, the annual income from the current garden waste service of £1.4million would be lost and there would be additional costs to extend the service beyond the 50% of households that currently used it.  It was estimated that the cost of introducing a food waste collection service would be £700,000 per year.

(v)          The Government’s Waste and Resources Strategy suggested that waste collection authorities, such as the Borough Council, could be provided with additional resources, possibly through the extended producer responsibility set out in the Strategy and/or a review of recycling credits.

(vi)         The best performing councils achieved 60 to 65% of waste being recycled and they provided food waste collection and a free garden waste service.  The majority of those councils collected black bins every three weeks.

(vii)        The Council would consider whether to participate in any pilot schemes but there had not been any invitations issued by the Government to date.  In considering whether to do so the Council would wish to ensure there would be no reduction in customer satisfaction or any costs to the Council associated with doing so.

(viii)       The Government would be consulting with local authorities and others regarding the proposed requirements to provide weekly food waste collection and free garden waste collection.  Should those proposals be taken forward the Council would need to review its Zero Waste Strategy.  The Government had identified those changes because the disposal of food waste and garden waste in black bins generated significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions.

(ix)         Some authorities offered on-demand collection services for certain types of waste such as nappies.

(x)          Road sweepings could be added to garden waste but needed to be processed first.

RESOLVED that the information be noted.

Reason

To acknowledge the information received.