Issue - meetings

Decision:

1.   To approve the closure of the recycling ‘bring’ sites across the borough, converting two – Station Parade in East Horsley and Portsmouth Road in Guildford – to flats recycling collection points.

2.   To cease the supply of refuse sacks to the 1,917 properties that currently receive them but to continue the supply of recycling sacks.

3.   To cease supplying 7L internal food waste caddies for use in residents’ kitchens.

4.   To continue to supply 23L external kerbside food waste caddies.

5.   To continue the supply of recycling bins.

Reason(s):

Acceptance of the proposals to close the ‘bring’ sites, cease the supply of refuse sacks and cease the supply of 7L internal food waste caddies allows a reduction in costs to the taxpayer with relatively little operational or customer service impact. Continuing the supply of 23L external kerbside food waste caddies and recycling bins allows the current service provision to continue uninterrupted while we wait for the impending recycling service regulatory update.

Other options considered and rejected by the Executive:

1.       ‘Bring’ sites

Option 1 - Do nothing – keep all 22 bring sites operating as currently.

Option 2 - Reduce the numbers of bring sites – reviewing the distribution of sites would lead to a limited cost saving dependent on which sites were closed.

2.       Refuse and recycling sack provision

Option 1 - Do nothing – continue to supply both refuse and recycling sacks.

Option 3 - Stopping the supply of both refuse and recycling sacks – offering a cost saving of £46,302 annually (through the ceasing of all sack supply and delivery).

3.       Small kitchen food waste caddy provision

Option 1 - Do nothing – continue to supply the 7L internal caddy for use within residents’ kitchen.

Option 3 - Charge for 7L internal kitchen caddies – this charge would need to be around £15 per container to cover the purchase, administration and delivery costs. There would be an online order system development cost of £4,500 and the demand may create an additional requirement for an additional delivery driver and vehicle as purchased containers would need to be delivered where they are currently collected from Parish Councils and the Millmead office.

4.       Charging for food waste caddies

Option 2 - Stop supplying all food waste caddies – this would provide a cost saving of £7,160 for the 7L internal caddies and £26,007 for the provision of 23L external caddies. There is no saving on delivery costs as these are not delivered. This option would require residents to provide their own caddies which is expected to reduce use of the food waste service, prompting more food waste to end up in the refuse bins and would raise health and safety concerns stemming from the use of uncertified containers by our crews leaving us liable for any crew injury.

Option 3 - Charging for all caddies – We have identified that we would need to charge around £15 for a small caddy and £17 for a large caddy to  ...  view the full decision text for item 35

The Lead Councillor for Planning, Environment and Climate Change introduced the report. Officers were commended for undertaking a review of the existing service and for the recommendations that had arisen as a result.

The Executive heard there were proposals to make changes to the Council’s recycling policy in a number of areas. A review of the policy had been driven from a service challenge procedure and was focused on making the service more cost efficient for the taxpayer without substantial environmental or customer service impact.

The recommendations covered five areas relating to the operation of recycling ‘bring’ sites; the provision of refuse and recycling sacks to properties without space for wheeled bins; the provision of indoor use food waste caddies; the provision of kerbside food waste caddies and the provision of recycling bins.

‘Bring’ sites predated kerbside collections and were now said to make twice as much work for collection teams since the recycled materials were identical. The sites were costly to maintain and also attracted fly-tipping. The proposal was to retain two ‘bring’ sites and to convert them to recycling points for adjacent flats which currently had no space to recycle. Arrangements would be made to close the sites in late January 2024. There would be communications with residents to give notice and advise them of the change.

The proposal to withdraw the provision of black bin sacks to those households without space to accommodate the usual large, wheeled bins would provide a saving as such bin sacks were widely available at a relatively low cost. The Council would continue to provide recycling sacks as these needed to be transparent for collection purposes and as such were not so widely available. Similarly, the small household caddies were widely available commercially and at less cost than if the Council were to charge residents for them. Once again, there would be a strong communications plan to advise residents.

It was noted that the recommendations had been considered by the Community Executive Advisory Board on 7 September 2023 with the feedback from that meeting being in agreement.

The Executive was in agreement with the proposals and consequently,

RESOLVED:

1.   To approve the closure of the recycling ‘bring’ sites across the borough, converting two – Station Parade in East Horsley and Portsmouth Road in Guildford – to flats recycling collection points.

2.   To cease the supply of refuse sacks to the 1,917 properties that currently received them but to continue the supply of recycling sacks.

3.   To cease supplying 7L internal food waste caddies for use in residents’ kitchens.

4.   To continue to supply 23L external kerbside food waste caddies.

5.   To continue the supply of recycling bins.

Reason(s):

Acceptance of the proposals to close the ‘bring’ sites, cease the supply of refuse sacks and cease the supply of 7L internal food waste caddies allows a reduction in costs to the taxpayer with relatively little operational or customer service impact. Continuing the supply of 23L external kerbside food waste caddies and recycling bins  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35

The Waste Policy and Development Manager and Waste, Parking and Fleet Services Manager gave a presentation in respect of the above.  The presentation covered the background to the service, consistency of collections, Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), Packaging Producer Responsibility Scheme (an extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme), packaging tax, disposal, collection changes and the resulting impact on the Borough, future possible service models, progress update and summary.

In terms of background, the Government had published a Resources and Waste Strategy in December 2018.  Between February and May 2019 four consultations were issued by the Government in respect of collection consistency, DRS, EPR and packaging tax and on 15 October 2019 the Government published the draft Environment Bill.  The responses to the consultations and indicated direction of travel would also be published.

With regard to consistency of collections, core materials had been agreed in the form of glass; paper and card; plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays; and steel and aluminium tins and cans.  The inclusion of cartons and plastic film was under review.  Free collection of garden waste, standardisation of bin colours, minimum refuse and recycling collection frequencies, and new Key Performance Indicators, likely to be carbon based, were being considered.  Food waste would be mandated and there would be a requirement for the separation of waste.  A minimum commercial standard would be set and businesses would be required to recycle waste.

Although DRS was expected to be introduced in 2023 following further consultation in 2020 regarding the related detail, the exact approach remained to be confirmed.  The Government had commissioned a social research project that would consider the impacts on residents of recycling at home which would result in less material for the Council to collect.

The EPR scheme was also expected to be introduced in 2023 following further consultation in 2020.  The scheme would require packaging producers to pay to place material on the market and to contribute to the costs of collecting and recycling it.  Money could be claimed back by producers when they used recycled plastic driving the recycling market. The resulting impact on the Borough would be changes in the materials collected and contributions to collection costs.

The packaging tax was a tax on all plastic packaging with less than a set recyclable content.  The 2019 budget would include further detail and HM Treasury would publish a technical consultation in respect of the tax design.  Related draft legislation would be published in 2020 for implementation in 2022.  This scheme would change the composition of the material collected by the Council resulting in collecting less packaging in volume and tonnage.

In terms of waste disposal, controls remained in place in China and its 2020 ban on imported waste was likely to occur.  Indonesia would be introducing new restrictions which would prevent export to the second biggest market, whilst the Netherlands had implemented a flat rate tax on every tonne of Refuse Derived Fuel waste, increasing the cost of disposing of rejected recycling and refuse.  Brexit  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21