Agenda item

As detailed in the recommendations.

Councillor Hughes introduced the report and explained that over the last five years the Waste Strategy had been reviewed three times with the most recent review being the ‘Target 70’ in July 2021.  Those reviews had allowed the Council to implement major service changes, which had contributed to improving the way waste and recycling services were delivered.

In its current Waste Strategy ‘Beyond Recycling’, Welsh Government (WG) set statutory targets for local authorities in Wales to reuse, recycle or compost a minimum of 64% of waste by 2022-23, and 70% of waste by 2024-25.

However, recycling performance levels in Flintshire had progressively decreased year on year with the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions having a significant impact.  The purpose of this review was to focus on achieving the statutory recycling targets and avoiding financial penalties if they failed to be achieved.

Following two all-Member workshops in November 2022, the report outlined how it was proposed to minimise waste and maximise recycling in order to improve recycling performance and achieve the statutory recycling targets.

Following a recent compositional analysis, initial results had shown that up to 50% of what was placed in the residual waste bins by residents in Flintshire was recyclable material.  Furthermore, 27% of the residual waste contents was found to be food waste.  With a separate weekly kerbside collection service available for food waste and weekly collection for recycling, the current situation was not sustainable and remained a significant risk to the local authority.

The general themes of feedback from the Member workshops was outlined in the report.  A key measure introduced by a number of other local authorities across Wales was to limit how much waste households could throw away. By restricting the capacity of the residual waste bin, people were encouraged to make more use of the recycling kerbside collection service.  Reducing residual waste could be achieved by reducing the capacity of the residual waste bin or changing the frequency of waste collections. 

A comparison of a number of waste collection models across Wales had taken place and it was clear that restricting residual waste improved recycling levels which in turn had a significant impact on recycling performance.  Reducing residual waste capacity to 60 litres had seen the following average improvements:

·         Overall reduction in household residual waste (including Household Recycling Centres) of 30%

·         Increase in kerbside dry recycling of 17%

·         Increase in good waste capture of 28%

If the collection frequency changed from the current fortnightly model, that would have an impact on required resources to deliver the collection services.  Full details were provided in the report.  A change in collection frequency could require consideration of changes to the container size or container types, which would involve further considerations including funding, health and safety, impact on crews, compatibility with vehicles and storage for residents. 

Capital funding would be required to procure alternative sized residual waste containers should a change in container size be required.  That was estimated to be in the region of £1m.

The Chief Officer (Streetscene and Transportation) explained the details in the table which showed the current overall waste arising, recycling performance and potential fines that could be levied by WG to Flintshire for failing to achieve the statutory recycling targets. 

The report was presented to the Environment & Economy Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 10^th January 2023 and Members discussed the various options for alternative collection frequencies.  The Committee proposed running a pilot for a reduced frequency collection service in one area of the county. 

It was also proposed that an increase in the charge for garden waste collections be considered as part of the review.  If the charge was increased by £1, it would generate additional income of £32k per year.  Members of the Environment & Economy Overview and Scrutiny Committee supported that proposal.

Councillor Hughes and the Chief Officer explained the importance of changing behaviour through education and added that the practical implications of the suggested pilot would be challenging. 

Councillor Bithell felt that if the targets had been met previously then they should be able to be again, and queried the best way to provide information to residents. 

The Chief Officer said the area for the pilot had not yet been determined, or when it would start and for how long.  A significant piece of work needed to be carried out and she suggested that she bring an updated report to Cabinet prior to the pilot being launched. 

Councillor Roberts said Cabinet needed to take notice of the recommendation from Environment and Economy Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the Council’s current recycling performance against statutory targets along with associated risks be noted;

(b)       That the options presented for alternative waste collection delivery models in order to achieve the statutory recycling targets set by Welsh Government be considered, and that the proposal to pilot a reduction in collection frequencies in one area of the county be supported; and

(c)        That the proposal to increase the garden waste subscription fee to recover increasing operational costs be approved.