Agenda item

This matter is the responsibility of Executive Councillor for Environmental Services, Councillor Sarah Wakefield.

This report seeks approval of the Somerset Waste Partnership’s Draft Business Plan 2021-2026.

During the discussion, the following points were made:-

·       Councillors were pleased to see that 98% of plastic was retained and recycled in the United Kingdom.

·       Councillors queried whether the carrier bags used to dispose of batteries in the recycling collection, would be returned, especially as residents had been encouraged not to use single use plastic.

The Managing Director of the Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) advised that the carrier bags would be returned so that the customers could reuse them for future collections.

·       Councillors queried how durable the new blue recycling bags were.

The Managing Director of the SWP was unsure of how long the blue bag would last, however, he had received positive feedback from the other areas that had been using the blue bags.

·       Councillors queried why the area of Somerset West and Taunton (SWT) had been split into the former Taunton Deane and West Somerset areas for the rollout of Recycle More.

The Managing Director of the SWP advised that they had split the area of SWT into two to make the rollout more manageable and explained that the two areas worked out of different depots which also needed to be updated in phases to be able to deliver the rollout of Recycle More.

·       Councillors queried how the scheme would be communicated to disabled residents.

The Managing Director of the SWP advised that all literature was available in braille and many different languages.  The SWP had also introduced a talking café to ensure community engagement with as many groups as possible.

·       Councillors queried how much of waste was transferred to energy.

The Managing Director of the SWP advised that the majority of the waste placed at kerbside was transferred to energy and approximately two thirds of the waste taken to the household waste recycling centres.

·       Councillors requested further information on how the SWP would achieve decarbonising of operations.

The Managing Director of the SWP advised there were many measures that were due to be implemented: trials of electric fleet vehicles; use of alternative fuels; green infrastructure; and optimising round designs, to name but a few.

·       Councillors queried how would the SWP enforce and support residents to recycle properly.

The Managing Director of the SWP advised that the recycling crews would tag the containers to educate the residents on what they should be placing in which container, as that had proved successful in the past.  If there was a persistent lack of proper recycling, then the residents would be contacted to discuss the different options available to assist them.

·       Councillors queried how the SWP would engage with residents who lived in flats, who did not have the space for all the recycling containers.

The Managing Director of the SWP advised that improved rollout would be done for communal bins but that it would depend on the individual properties.

·       Concern was raised on the Walford Cross site and what was being done to reassure staff that worked at the site.

The Managing Director of the SWP advised that a press release had been distributed and assured councillors that extra measures had been put in place to support staff and that those measures were under constant review.

·       Concern was raised on waste being blown across the roads.

The Managing Director of the SWP advised that the use of the new blue recycling bag should prevent the lightweight objects from being blown into the roads.

·       Councillors queried where Somerset was in the recycling league table.

The Managing Director of the SWP advised that Somerset was in the top 20% on weight based recycling and the top 10% in carbon saving.

·       Councillors queried whether there would be a move back to textile recycling.

The Managing Director of the SWP advised that they currently collected wearable textiles at kerbside but that it was not likely to change to other textiles in the near future.

·       Councillors queried ‘what’s next’?

The Managing Director of the SWP agreed that there was still lots more that they could achieve and would need to challenge themselves in the future and look at resource efficiency amongst other areas.

·       Concern was raised on issues that residents had experienced with the clinical waste collections when the data had been transferred onto a new operating system.

The Managing Director of the SWP advised that he was aware that there had been issues, but that they should have been fixed by now.  So requested councillors to contact the SWP if they were aware of any other residents still having issues with their collections.

·       Concern was raised for those residents who had nappies and incontinence pads as part of their rubbish and that they would have to store that waste for the three weekly collections.

The Managing Director of the SWP understood their concern and explained that sixteen other authorities had already changed over to the three weekly collections and that they had used a stepped approach to the rollout.  He also advised that the SWP could provide additional bins to those residents who required extra capacity due to that type of waste.

·       Councillors queried what plastic would be collected as currently it was only plastic bottles.

The Managing Director of the SWP advised that explaining which plastic could be recycled was tricky with many containers being made up of different materials.  So the SWP planned to make it simple and describe the types of plastic containers that would be collected.

·       Councillors queried whether the blue recycling bag would be folded and placed back in one of the recycling boxes to prevent them from blowing away on collection days.

The Managing Director of the SWP assured the councillors that the crews should return the containers carefully and that was monitored and resolved if there were any problems with the crew not replacing them appropriately.

·       Councillors were impressed with the feedback from the Mendip area, who had just gone through the rollout of Recycle More and the use of different measures for communicating the changes to residents.

·       Councillors thought that it was an interesting and exciting report and were pleased to see the encouraging figures and wanted to do as much as they could to help residents to recycle.

·       Councillors thanked the SWP for all their hard work.

Resolved that the Executive:-

2.1Approved the draft Business Plan 2021-2026 and draft budget 2021-22 and provide feedback to the Board (see Appendix A).

2.2Noted the changes to how garden waste payments would be made in 2021, as previously agreed by the Somerset Waste Board.

2.3Approved the renewal of the delegation of powers to Somerset Waste Partnership subject to confirmation from the Director of External Operations and Climate Change in association with other Officers that SWP’s Advice, Support & Enforcement Policy to be provided in due course was compliant with the constitution and legislation to delegate such power. The Director should have such authorisation to approve this delegation.