Issue - meetings

As detailed in the recommendation.

Councillor Kevin Jones introduced the report on the proposed review of the Waste Collection and Household Recycling Centre Services. 

            Welsh Government (WG) had set each Council in Wales challenging recycling targets and failure to achieve those targets would result in significant financial penalties being served.  To achieve the more challenging targets, more waste needed to be recycled. 

            The majority of residents in Flintshire had embraced the current recycling service since it was launched in 2012 with most residents recycling the bulk, if not all of their recyclable waste.  There remained however a sizeable minority of residents who did not participate fully with the system and in some cases, did not recycle any of their waste.  That was unfair on the residents who did support the service and there needed to be a way of ensuring that everybody contributed to the efforts to achieve the targets and avoid the fines that would result if those targets were not met.

            In future, all non-recyclable waste must be contained within the Council supplied black wheeled bin and any material presented in addition to this would be classed as side waste.  From 1^st June 2017 no side waste would be collected.  The normal bin would be emptied and the side waste placed back in the container and a sticker placed on the bin to inform the resident of the new arrangements.  From 1^st September 2017 any side waste material presented for collection would be subject to enforcement action and a fixed penalty notice would be issued to the resident in the first instance.

            The current arrangement would remain in place prior to June 2017 which was that if any excess side waste was presented it would be noted by the crews and staff from the service would call on the resident to investigate the level of waste being produced by the property. 

Following a question from Councillor Attridge, the Chief Officer (Streetscene and Transportation) explained that during the 12 month period prior to implementation staff would work with the public to educate them on the recycling requirements and a period of intense public consultation would take place.

            In addition, WG was undertaking a review of the Council’s Household Recycling Centre (HRC) provision.  Early indications from the study showed that the Council had more HRC sites than necessary, and that the facilities offered at each site did not match the minimum requirements for the high quality sites which achieved the high levels of recycling elsewhere in Wales.  The WG study would make a final recommendation on the most effective solution in terms of numbers and locations for the future of HRC site provision and would make a recommendation on the optimum configuration and location of sites.

The revised Waste Collection and Household Recycling Centre Policy would be presented to Cabinet in May 2016, which would allow feedback from the current consultation process to be considered and included in the revised policy.

RESOLVED:

That the ongoing consultation be supported and Welsh Government (WG)  ...  view the full minutes text for item 178