Meeting documents

Statement by Cllr Paul Crossley

November 2008 Waste Statement to Cabinet - ref item 12

This Council has a zero waste policy - but this is not a zero waste strategy. While the Liberal Democrat group welcomes the broad thrust of this paper and the continued commitment of this Council not to participate in the Mass Burn Incinerator path that our three West of England Partners (WEP) are following.

We welcome the proposals for treatment facilities in our area as outlined as a good basis for consultation. We endorse the principle that waste should be dealt with as locally as possible.

We welcome the commitment to incorporate ideas such as CHP in new housing development and would urge to more progressive planning approach to include proper waste separation and a challenging requirement on sustainability and energy efficiency in new housing schemes.

However where the consultation fails is in its poverty of vision, its lack of ambition and its failure to address ZERO WASTE.

On page 4 of the summary document the graph clearly shows this Council's vision and ambition of increasing recycling from 40% in 2008 to 50% in 2020.

This is not a zero waste strategy

This is not an ambitious strategy

This is not a visionary strategy

This is merely a work of cost-benefit analysis

So what could be improved?

Same day waste collection of all waste streams could have been up and running for nearly a year by now.

Same day collection reduces litter and fly tipping. It allows flexibility in managing waste streams. It allows innovation such as collecting all plastic tubs to be incorporated easily. In itself it adds 6% to the recycling rate.

Food waste collection could have been added in the year following same day waste collection. It could be rolling out across the Council as we speak. This would add nearly 9% to recycling rates.

In other words we could have been approaching a recycling rate of 60% by the end of next year. Instead we are still languishing at 40% with an ambition to reach 50% by 2020.

The failure of the WEP waste strategy is the failure to rise to the waste challenge and for our partners to take the wrong route down the incineration path.

The failure of our Council has been our lack of success in convincing our WEP partners to join us in a Zero Waste strategy.

The failure of this administration is its backtracking from our policy of Zero Waste.