Minutes:
Question
The report on the re3 Waste Strategy (Item 18) shows that re3 have set a number of targets aimed at improving reuse and recycling to 50% by 2020. One of these targets is G3, which lays down a 2% increase in collected recycling/composting/reuse from 18% to 20% of total household waste and a 4% reduction in the contamination of kerbside recycling from 19% to 15%, both by 31st March 2017. The report does not include the action plan for how those two things are to be achieved. Could you please tell me what is in the action plan?
Answer
This is the re3 Strategy which, of course, is the one from the Joint Waste Disposal Board for the three Councils and this is all helping to work with the three Councils to achieve 50% recycling by 2020 and it dovetails with the work being undertaken by an internal Task and Finish Group, which one of your colleagues has been on, on increasing residual waste and increasing recycling.
The main elements within the action plan are on kerbside recycling increasing the percentage from 18% collected to 20% as a percentage of the total by 2020 represents a real increase of approximately 600 tonnes per annum. This will be achieved in a number of ways including: carrying out an analysis of our current residual waste to see what materials still remain enabling us to target them; reinforcing messages to existing residents; more information for our new residents; engaging with those living in flats to ensure they have the appropriate capacity and facilities to recycle; and also working within our re3 partnership to get a single and consistent message across about the principles of reducing waste and increasing recycling.
On contamination I wonder if people really understand that word. What that really means is putting the wrong things in your black box and we have been working on this issue for some time and especially since the implementation of the MRF (which is the material recycling facility at Smallmead) a Code of Conduct which came into play last October. Since that time a random sample of delivered recycling has been sampled across our fourteen refuse rounds. This data is now being analysed and we will be working on the areas that are giving higher levels of contamination which will allow us again to target the message in those areas. This combined with the increase in kerbside recycling should see us add a further 1,000 tonnes to the recycling total.
This Council will be taking this on and will work on its action plan in conjunction with what is being done at re3. I hope the three Councils will endorse the Strategy which we have got before us tonight and we will be bringing back our Council’s plans in the Autumn.
Supplementary Question
Will you be going to bi-weekly collections and wheelie bins to increase recycling and to decrease waste?
Supplementary Answer
Our collection contract is renewable in 2019 and we are working and the Task and Finish Group is also involved, with your colleague, in looking at various options which we will put to the Council on how we collect the waste from all our residents from 2019.