Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest made.

RESOLVED

that the minutes of the meeting of the Panel held on 7^th March, 2017, be received and approved.

The Scrutiny Manager informed the Panel that both Garden Waste and Fly Tipping were topics that had been added to the Scrutiny Workplan 2017 for consideration. The Items were added following the introduction of the Garden Waste Project in 2016. Members wanted to explore the impact of this following its initial 12 months of implementation.

TheChairman welcomed Edd de Coverly, Director of Place and Communities and Sam Dennis, Service Lead for Waste and Environment, to the meeting. 

The Service Lead undertook a presentation to the Panel to enable Members to consider how the changes to the Council’s waste collection service have been implemented and the initial outcomes and performance of the service over the previous 12 months.

The main points were considered as follows:-

The Challenge

The Council were aiming to increase recycling rates to 65% by 2030 from the current rate of 34%, which had not particularly increased since the previous introduction of the twin bin scheme.

The Reality

In reality up to 20% of recyclable material was still being put into the residual bins including dry recyclables and garden waste.

Where Should the Waste Go?

Members were reminded that garden waste was composted for reuse, dry recyclables were cleaned, sorted into batches and turned into other things and residual waste usually ended up in landfill or sent abroad to become someone else’s problem.

The Project Plan

Deliveries took place of over 50,000 red 180 litre bins for residual waste and the black lidded bins were repurposed into garden waste bins.  Residents were informed of the new waste collection service via road shows, leaflets and social media.  Support was provided to residents by a Waste Advisor and Keep Britain Tidy.

Recognition of Success

Recognition was given to staff who worked tirelessly to implement the new service taking up to 400 calls a day during the implementation period.  The Waste Services Team were awarded a Chairman’s Special Recognition Certificate for their hard work and made finalists of the Keep Britain Tidy Network Award 2017.

Evaluation of Data

Following 12 month’s implementation the Council’s recycling rate had increased by 9.26% up to a total of 41% for 2016/17.  The total tonnage of residual waste collected had reduced by 10.86% and garden waste collected and available for composting had increased by 97.72%.

Nottinghamshire Position – 2016/16 End of Year

The Panel were advised that the Council were now in third place overall in relation to the percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling or composting.  This was a pleasing result and was to be welcomed by the Council. 

Estimated Disposal Costs 2016/17

Following implementation of the scheme, the overall cost of disposing of residual waste, dry recyclables and garden waste had resulted in a saving of £208,778.92.

Unintended Consequences

Although implementation of the new waste service had been successful, some unintended consequences of the change had resulted in bin thefts, contamination and only a minimum increase in dry recycling.  The public had also linked the changes to an increase in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.