Meeting documents

To consider the attached report.

Contact Officer:  Isabel Edgar Briancon (01296) 585862

The Committee received a presentation from the Service Manager, Recycling, Waste and Community Spaces on the waste strategy for Buckinghamshire including information on household waste and combined recycling rates.

The Bucks Waste Strategy sought, as a partnership, to work together to deliver the best value, most customer-focused waste and recycling service, incorporating prevention, reuse, collection and disposal.  Some of the key data presented included:-

·                    Total household waste arising was increasing at 0.4% above housing growth and equated to every household in Bucks producing an extra 4.5kgs of waste (1129.80kgs per household in 2013/14 to 1134.09 per household in 2015/16).  This was 4,056 tonnes extra total waste.

·                    District-wide, 56.5% of waste was now composted or recycled.  This compared to 45% in 2010/11.  (The UK average recycling rate was 44.9%, against a UK target of 50% and a Bucks Waste Partnership (BWP) target of 60%).

·                    For AVDC, approximately 53% of waste was recycled or composted which compared to 20% in 2011/12.

·                    that fly-tipping continued to be an issue.  Following illegal dumping in Slapton and Aston Clinton, one main group had been summonsed by the police for 8 offences.  (Similar data on flytipping on the other Districts was also provided).

·                    that residual waste tonnage trends were increasing by 1.3% over the last 2 years, while food waste tonnage trends were decreasing by 7% over the same period.

·                    an explanation of how dry recycling and food waste was collected and then disposed of.  It was explained that it cost four times the price to send food waste to the EfW facility compared to sending it for anaerobic digestion (AD).

·                    that residents could assist with rubbish disposal by placing the correct rubbish in the correct bins (e.g. 47% of households placed recyclable items in the general rubbish bin, 47% placed non-recyclable items in their recycling, 35-41% did not take food out of its wrapping before placing it in the food waste collection or used the general rubbish bin.)

Fly-tipping clearances from public land were usually done by Districts and disposal was paid by the County.  There had been significant spikes in clearances total noted and combatted during 2016 by massively increasing surveillance work.  Work would continue to promote deterrence against dumping including through the media and to encourage witnesses to report instances.

Members were informed that DCLG had awarded the BWP £889,000 and funding for a recycling reward scheme.  A new Project Manager was overseeing the Recycling project implementation over a two year period (September 2016 to August 2018) and would be working with commercial partners, members of the partnership and residents.

It was also explained that the average UK household disposed of £700 of food each year that could have been eaten but was thrown away.  The Fighting Food Waste Programme aimed to reduce this waste through:-

·                    identifying and setting our food waste recycling.

·                    increasing food waste participation in Buckinghamshire County households from 25% to 40%.

·                    reducing food waste tonnage per head by 15%.

·                    increasing awareness of various ways of food preparation and preservation, using Love Food Hate Waste (LFHW) campaign tools, by 25%.

Members requested further information and were informed:-

(i)            that the Council did not have a planning policy specifically relating to waste disposal units incorporated into new properties.

(ii)           that it was important to have regular communications with people to ensure that they recycled and disposed of their household and food waste correctly.  Some research would be undertaken in early 2017 to try to ascertain why

(iii)          that while clearer labelling by manufacturers would make recycling easier, this was not helped by the 320 different types of refuse collection systems that operated across the UK.  The Government was looking to harmonise the collections systems to 4 different types, one of which fitted with the system currently used by AVDC.

(iv)         on the detection work and latest cameras that were being deployed to identify and reduce instances of fly tipping.  Experience had shown that as the cost of disposing of waste had increased, the size of flytippings had also increased.

(v)          that the whole recycling process worked more smoothly if materials recycled by households were not contaminated.  Nationally, 14% of household recyclates contained contaminants.  The percentage rate for AVDC recyclates had risen from 3% to 11.6% (for the last quarter).  Increased efforts would be made over the coming months to assist in reducing the contaminant rate.

(vi)         that AVDC disposed of food waste through a contractor at Westcott.  It would cost approximately 4 times the amount to dispose of the same waste via the EfW plant at Calvert.

(vii)        that people could check a Register of waste carriers, brokers and dealers electronically on the Environment Agency’s website.

(viii)       that AVDC had no jurisdiction regarding the disposal of waste and, at the request of the County Council, separated food waste from household waste.  It was explained the UK legislation on the disposal of waste concentrated on reducing tonnages of waste, rather than reducing carbon metrics or the amount of nitreous oxide that the waste might generate.

(ix)         that the Council was able to charge for the collection of offensive waste which included such things as clinical waste.  It would be possible to charge for a service such as nappy / dog poo disposal, subject to a business case, but 3 nappy recycling facilities had opened and subsequently closed in the UK in the last 10 years due to being uneconomical.  As such, it was still more economical to dispose of this sort of waste at EfW.

(x)          that the Council provided new residents to the Vale with a resident’s pack with useful information including on waste and recycling.  The funding received from the DCLG would also enable the Council to fund a Projects Officer post.  Part of the DCLG monies would also be used to survey people and to use this customer insight to help improve people’s behaviour regarding waste/recycling disposal.

(xi)         on the position regarding Houses in multiple occupation and refuse/recycling bins.

RESOLVED –

(1)          That the Service Manager, Recycling, Waste and Community Spaces be thanked for attending and presenting to Members on the waste strategy for Buckinghamshire.

(2)          That Members were supportive of the work being done by AVDC to support the Bucks Waste Strategy, including on providing a customer-focused waste and recycling service, and on reducing fly tipping.