Further to the adoption of the Council’s new Integrated Waste Management Strategy in July 2021 and subsequent planning for additional commissioning this report seeks to agree the council’s preferred waste collection arrangements necessary to implement the strategy.

The cabinet member commissioning, procurement and assets introduced the item. She offered thanks to officers for their work on the proposal, to bin operatives for their hard work, particularly during the pandemic, and to all those who responded to the consultation.

The interim programme director – waste initiative and the head of environment, climate emergency and waste services summarised the key points of the report.

Cabinet members discussed the report and highlighted that:

·        Communication was essential in implementing the new collection arrangements, the council currently had very few issues with waste collection and wanted to maintain this standard;

·        Information would be provided to households on what was to be collected each week, the use of technology would be investigated to assist in this area;

·        The council had 2 years to prepare and investigate ways to mitigate challenges such as those facing residents in flats or with limited storage space;

·        There should be an emphasis on minimising food waste, while ensuring that the waste which was produced was collected regularly so it did not become a health hazard.

Group leaders and representatives also thanked bin operatives for their work and generally supported the proposals. There was a request for assurance that separation of recycling would lead to higher recycling rates and clarity on where the recycling generated in Herefordshire went. It was recognised that the proposed changes would have to be accompanied by a behaviour change campaign to reduce the amount of waste produced.

It was resolved that:

(a)             The Council supports residents to increase recycling by adopting the new waste collection model as outlined in this report with a view to being fully operational in November 2023. This includes:

a.               The introduction of a new two weekly garden waste collection service;

b.               The introduction of a new weekly food collection service;

c.               The adoption of a twin stream recycling service to enable residents to further segregate recyclable materials and;

d.               To adopt a three weekly residual collection model.

(b)             A further report is brought back to Cabinet in July 2022 outlining the capital costs that it will be recommended are added to the council’s 2022/23 capital programme to ensure successful implementation of the preferred model in terms of fleet, waste containers, equipment and depot alterations;

(c)             A further report is brought back to cabinet in July 2022 detailing service specification and seeking permission to commence the tendering process for the new service;

(d)             Authority is delegated to the Section 151 Officer to take all operational decisions to implement the above recommendations