Meeting documents
Cabinet
Wednesday, 5th April, 2006
BACKGROUND APPENDIX B
The Government set statutory performance targets for Recycling and Composting for Bath & North East Somerset Council of 33% for 2003/04 and 36% for 2005/06. Although the dry recycling collection service was well developed it was clear that the statutory targets could not be reached without collecting garden waste.
In October 2002 the Council began a 12-month green waste trial to 4,500 households using different collection frequencies and different sizes and types of container. Kitchen waste was also collected from some groups of households on the scheme. The trials were started to determine the most effective method of collecting green waste from households. Waste collected was sent to Leominster for composting in an in-vessel system. This trial, funded through Landfill Tax, ended in October 2003.
Officers prepared a funding bid to Government as part of Defra's £140 Million Recycling Fund and were successful and awarded £755,000 to develop a fortnightly Garden Waste and Cardboard Collection Service across the Council area. The collections started in June 2003 using three large Rotopress vehicles and one smaller vehicle to cover areas where they could not access.
The costs of participating in the scheme for residents were £36 for 3 years' use of a wheeled bin (240 or 140 litres) and paper sacks were sold for 35p each. Councillors took the decision to continue to run these collections as a permanent service in February 2004.
The charges to users were raised to £37 and 50p respectively in February 2005.