Agenda item

To submit to the Committee the future ambitions for the waste and recycling service including improving recycling levels (as requested by the Committee at its meeting on 17 February 2020). 

The report will also address a proposed site visit to a waste and recycling centre.

The Committee was informed that prior to the COVID pandemic, invitations for a select number of Councillors were about to be made by the Portfolio holder for site visits to the Veolia plastic sorting and processing plants based in both Rainham and Degenham Essex, along with a site visit to the ECC transfer site located on the A120 at Ardleigh. As COVID restrictions remained in place Veolia were currently not offering site visits to any of their sites, policies were under constant review in line with government guidance and once the authority and Veolia were in a position to offer site visits suitable arrangements would be put in place to resurrect the intended site visits.

Photography and video recording was prohibited at their sites and due to that, live streaming or educational video was not an option. 

Future ambitions of the service to further improve the recycling rates:

Members heard the last of the main delivery of approximately 58,000 wheeled bins was completed by the end of August 2019 and as such the wheeled bin service had been in operation for just over a year. The report of the Portfolio Holder for Environment placed before Cabinet on the 16^th February 2018 it was anticipated that the fortnightly collection of residual waste from a wheeled bin would reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill by an estimated 16% (4,500 tonnes) whilst increasing recycling by an estimated 3,100 tonnes and increasing the recycling rate by an estimated 8%.

The latest audited data supplied by ECC for the period of April 2019 to March 2020 had reported a reduction of waste sent to landfill by 7363 tonnes, increasing recycling by 2899 tonnes and increasing the recycling rate from the 2018/19 figure of 27.4% to 2019/20 figure of 36.6%; an increase of 9.2%.

Those figures not only meet or exceeded the predicted ambitions of the new service, the new waste service had not become fully operational until the last week in August 2019, this indicated that with the first 5 months data based either fully or partially on the old weekly collection service, that the future performance of the fortnightly collection service would continue to over achieve the initial targets set for the service.

With the introduction of wheeled bins having clearly promoted waste minimisation and increased participation in recycling, that since the roll out of the 58,000 wheeled bins the authority and Veolia have continued to work towards increasing the wheeled bin participation of households within the District. The initial audit of the properties in the district indicated approximately 11,000 properties which should remain on a weekly bag collection service, TDC Officers continued to reassess and where practicably possible, introduce wheeled bins to these 11,000 properties, with numerous blocks of flats and properties in rural locations being transferred over to a fortnightly wheeled bin service.  Additionally to those properties, as all new build developments became occupied the residents were automatically provided with not just a wheeled bin but also a full set of recycling boxes to promote and assist in the kerbside collection.

The recycling Officer has recently overseen the installation of a new bring site, located at ASDA in Clacton resulting in the installation of 6 additional glass banks, which helped support and increase the nertwork of bring sites across the district. Additionally the community bring site in Brigtlingsea had seen a larger capacity tetrapak bank installed to help meet demand.

The Street Scene team had recently taken on a new technical administrator; the purpose of that position would be to provide additional administrative support to the team, which when combined with the increased use by residents and customers of the authorities on line My Tendring portal reporting tool, will further improve our responses to enquiries and complaints and critically, will have freed up the Recycling Officer to prioritise their workload in promoting and enhancing recycling within Tendring.

As highlighted above the team continued to work and build upon the foundations of the new waste service, continued to deliver wheeled bins, installed and provided additional bring sites and ensured all new build properties were provided with a full waste and recycling container set in a timely manner; those efforts could be reflected in the recycling data for September 2019 up to and including the end of April 2020; for that 8 month period which solely reflects the fortnightly collection service had recorded a recycling rate of 39.80%; an increase of 12.4% compared to 2018/19, the below table summarised the changes during the transition to the new waste service, with the 8 month data extrapolated out to a 12 month period for comparative ease.

After much deliberation the Committee RECCOMMENDED that:

1.    that the recommendation from 17 February about waste minimisation information to residents (perhaps in council tax leaflet) be repeated

2.    that the Cabinet be invited to set the aspiration for this Council over the next four years to reach the mean level of recycling for all local authority districts in the East            

3.    that (further to (2)) the aspirations information presented to the meeting be assessed and an action plan be developed to take relevant ones forward in the short, medium and long term aimed at achieving the aspiration referenced.  This action plan to be submitted to this Committee 

4.    that work with primary schools on waste reduction, minimisation and recycling should start at the first practical opportunity and details of involvement be passed to the relevant ward councillors in advance of such work commencing and explore possibility of funding for schools to support recycling

5.    that details of all bring sites be submitted to the Committee detailing the recycling available, the extent of use as far its known, the collection frequency and the plans for improving them, the range of recycling to be made available to extend that provision and address any excess of use over capacity for it and the signage at those sites to be clear that side waste should not be left.