Agenda item

Waste contract

To review the operation of the council’s new waste contract.

 

Minutes:

The report provided the committee with an update regarding the delivery of the council’s new recyclables and waste collection contract. The report was taken as read.

 

  1. The committee expressed disappointment that the recycling rate across the county remained stubbornly low at 40%, but acknowledged that this figure would potentially and hopefully rise in the near future, when gardening and food recycling streams were turned on.

 

  1. The committee considered whether progress was stagnating and if there was a potential opportunity to increase the recycling rate through greater publicity, education awareness and household recycling centre activity.

 

  • The Cabinet Member Environment shared the committee’s frustration and attributed some of the problem as being down to the way funding had been delayed in coming through.

 

  • It was important to consider that the waste hierarchy didn’t begin with recycling, and that upstreaming and effective triaging of items going through household recycling sites could have a positive impact. It was noted that quite often what was called waste was actually resource and should not end up in a waste stream.

 

  • The current system was very pragmatic and was relatively easy for everybody to engage with, but certain elements were not being captured because they went into residual and were not identified as doing anything by being recycled. There were also problems with the contamination of waste streams and items being mixed.

 

  1. The committee enquired if there was a need for a circular economy strategy to set out what the council was hoping to achieve in all of the related areas.

 

  • The Head of Environment Climate Emergency and Waste Services explained that there was a strategy in place, which set out very ambitious targets aligning to the government’s circular economy strategy and the Environment Act. The council’s new contract had been a very significant step in that journey and had laid a lot of the foundations for the big changes to come. Progress was not stagnating and the service would be bringing forward food waste and garden waste reports imminently, which would hugely impact the recycling rate.

 

  • It was pointed out that there had been a lot of change in government strategy over the past 12 months, but the contract represented excellent value for money for customers and provided the flexibility to drive continued improvement and turn on big changes swiftly.

 

  • The Waste Service Manager explained that press releases were being finalised to communicate the news that small electrical items such a hair dryers, toasters, kettles and batteries could be left on top of either type of waste bin for collection. These were items that would regularly end up in the bin and posed a potential health and safety, and fire risk.

 

  • The Waste Services Manager pointed out that nationally the recycling rate was falling, but Herefordshire had been able to stabilise its rate, which was notable given that certain services and streams had not been turned on yet.

 

  1. The committee enquired about the visibility of resource that did not enter into the council’s waste streams and whether this was significant.

 

  • The Waste Services Manager stated that if waste disappeared through external charity shops and other organisations then that would be unquantifiable and would not be reflected in the council’s total waste arisings. 

 

  1. The committee asked how the service would monitor the social value aspects of the contract.

 

  • The Head of Environment Climate Emergency and Waste Services explained that a series of annual reporting requirements had been placed within the contract to ensure reports were coming back detailing what had been done and what was being done to achieve positive outcomes. If certain KPIs were not being met, then a rectification plan would be put in place to attempt to resolve the issue over the next period. If matters weren’t resolved oven an extended period, then the council and contractor would discuss and mutually agree slight changes and adjustments if necessary.

 

  • This was an innovative approach to monitoring social value and had been shared with other directorates and departments within the council in relation to contract procurement.

 

  1. The committee enquired about feedback around the slot booking system used to access refuse sites.

 

  • The Waste Services Manager stated that some people did not like the booking system and found it restrictive, but generally the public feedback had been positive and people liked the fact that they were guaranteed access and that it was usually quite quiet, which gave them more space and time to separate items. It also helped to keep people from outside of the county from using them and illegal trade waste being dumped.

 

  1. The committee asked for it to be recorded that it was impressed with the way the contract has been implemented and with the improvements that had been made across the service.

 

 

At the conclusion of the debate, the committee discussed potential recommendations, and the following resolution was agreed.

 

 

That Herefordshire Council:

 

  1. Commission a piece of work, exploring further options for improving current reuse and recycling rates across the county, in advance of any expansion of the waste collection streams to food and garden.

Supporting documents: