Agenda item

Waste Strategy 2020-2030

A report is attached. There will also be a verbal update at the meeting.

Minutes:

Pam Jones - Interim Project Manager, Environmental Services introduced the report. She explained that this is an early report on emerging themes and wanted to hear the Panel’s comments on compulsory recycling. She added that she had been working closely with the Corporate and Community Sustainability Manager.

 

Panel members asked the following questions and raised the following points:

 

Councillor Hirst raised the following points:

 

·  He has concerns around the closure of the Midland Road Site. It would not be appropriate to move it to Oddown due to the busy road.

·  Anxious about compulsory recycling as we are managing recycling well so would making it compulsory make enough of a difference?

·  Worried about vulnerable people – a draconian approach may cause stress. The nudge approach is better.

·  Excited about growing the reuse and repair group. They could drop in on ward meetings.

 

The officer explained that we have a 58% success rate regarding recycling, but we have run out of things to do to improve this. Around 20% of residents do not recycle. Making it compulsory might mean we can jump from 58% to 61%. This move would not be based around just fines, it would be mainly about education.

 

Councillor Bromley stated the current system for recycling in BANES is complex, maybe you could make the benefits of this system clearer and incentivise rather than punish.

 

Councillor Wood, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhood Services explained that some counter education is needed, some people believe the Council puts all the collected recycling into landfill. The officer explained that the Government 2023 Strategy will set out how Council’s should get rid of waste, we aligned with this already. We need to work on putting out the message that recycling is helping with the Climate Emergency agenda – the environmental benefits are the equivalent of taking cars of the road.

 

Councillor Johnson made the following points:

 

·  Recycling should be made compulsory and BANES should push to be the best authority on this.

·  Charges for garden waste may disincentivise people.

·  To what extent will the Council’s actions be superseded by the Government Waste and Recycling Strategy?

·  Can the Council act over people having fires in their garden?

 

The officer responded that the Council’s plans are aligned with the Government’s Strategy. There is a need to help support people to compost more waste. There is a proposal in the Strategy that garden waste should be made free. Councillor Crossley, Cabinet Member Community Services explained that he disagreed with this in that some people do not have gardens. He stated that he thought the community initiatives in the report such as street champions and volunteers was a good idea as local people might get a better response than Council advice. Councillor Crossley added that the Government should give Council’s the responsibility to pick up business recycling and litter and it should be made illegal to pack things with polystyrene.

 

Councillor O Brien stated (regarding the Waste Strategy) that there are a number of homes such as flats and apartments where there are inadequate recycling facilities so she cannot support compulsory recycling as it would not be fair. She added that there is still more education that can be done about what people can recycle (eg. Some tips take polystyrene). She added that she agreed with the point on the repair cafe as the one regularly held in Keynsham is well-support and was crowded at the last event. It helps people use skills and is also a community project. Councillor Wood, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhood Services commented that there is a drive to bring more flats on board regarding recycling rates. Lisa Gordon (Waste officer) added that there are storage issues for some flat owners and officers are working on this.

 

Councillor Born made the following points:

 

·  A plea for more communal recycling – maybe underground bins, particularly in the city centre.

·  It important to note that some city centre flats are not Curo properties so this may not be solely Curo’s responsibility.

·  Do not agree with compulsory recycling until there is more equality.

·  We could publish how much we pay for waste that we put into landfill.

·  Regarding the recycling centre – in agreement that it should be moved outside the city centre, but some smaller city centre provision also needed.

 

The officer agreed on the importance of publishing information such as how much it costs to put a dustcart full of waste into landfill verses the cost of a recycling truck.  The officer added that it can be hard to engage with flat owners in the city centre. The officers are looking at on street food waste bins.

 

Councillor Davies made the following points:

 

·  There should be some caution on compulsory recycling until we have done everything else we can to address the issue.

·  We could put stickers on bins etc. to show statistics about recycling.

·  Do we understand what the barriers are for the 20% of people that do not recycle?

 

 The officer responded that uptake regarding food waste was sporadic. This is being monitored and can be reported back. The officer stated that she did not know the reason why 20% of people do not recycle but from Autumn this year there will be technology which will identify which households are not recycling which can then be targeted with better information. The Cabinet Member for Neighbourhood Services added that this technology will be a game changer.

 

There was some discussion around the use of biodegradable bags in food waste bins. The Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods explained that people can use newspaper or plastic bags – they will be removed at the plant.

Councillor Dr Kumar made the following points:

 

·  In favour of the street champion idea.

·  Agree that garden collections should not be free.

·  In some religions there would be no food waste, these families should not be punished.

 

The Cabinet Member for Neighbourhood Services agreed that there may be good reasons why people do not have food waste so we cannot to be heavy handed.

 

Councillor Walker made the following points:

 

·  Happy to support free garden waste as it might alleviate fly tipping.

·  Support the deposit and refund scheme.

·  Regarding the CCTV dash cam technology – crews must also be careful not to drop waste.

·  If people compost, they will have no food waste.

 

Councillor Wood, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhood Services stated that the discussion had been useful and noted that most of the Panel are cautious about compulsory recycling.

Supporting documents: