Agenda item

Report of the Head of Locality Services Provision

The Committee considered the report of the Head of Locality Services – Provision that updated on refuse collection, recycling and food waste collections during the last financial year 2017/2018.

The report indicated that the waste collection operation within the Council’s Cleansing Services Section effectively consisted of four strands of operation, namely:-

• Waste which cannot be recycled (collected via black sack or grey wheeled bin)
• Waste which can be recycled (collected via hessian sack or brown wheeled bin)
• Food waste (collected via a green caddy and compostable liner system)
• Green ‘Garden’ Waste (collected via green wheeled bin);

updated on the insourcing of the contract for dry recycling materials whereby the Council would undertake to deliver all dry recyclable material to the Merseyside Waste and Recycling Authority Materials Recycling Facility at Gilmoss and be a fully-fledged comingled Council in line with neighbouring Liverpool City Region Councils.

The report also indicated that the anticipated extra tonnages of recycled materials had not materialised and recycling performance across the Council had actually reduced since last year’s update by 2% (from 40% in 2016/ 2017) and the figure was now 38%; that the tonnage of collected food waste had reduced from approximately 2,700 tonnes in 2016 per annum to around 1,250 tonnes in the last financial year, despite the availability of free compostable caddy liners and a free additional food waste storage bin if requested; that the Green (garden) waste service had continued its upward growth since the last report with the collected tonnage at 19,900 tonnes in the financial year 2017/2018; and that the total of household waste collected in 2017/2018 increased over the previous twelve months by approximately 900 tonnes.  In 2017/18 the service collected just over 65,000 tonnes of household waste which was not sent for recycling or re-use or composting in total and the main explanation for this increase was the growth in house building which in the last year amounted to over 1,000 additional properties to be serviced/collected by the refuse crews. 

The report concluded that in the years 2010 to date any reduction in budget across the service had effectively been found via efficiencies alone as the Council was still required to collect refuse or empty bins from every property across the Borough.  As such, no services had ceased, but the service still operated with a much-reduced budget. This arrangement obviously could not continue ad infinitum, especially when compounded by the increasing pace of new-build houses, the development of properties across the Borough, the ever-worsening access issues into some roads caused by parked cars, and the general demands upon the refuse and recycling operation; that a range of new initiatives had been developed in recent years to mitigate the budgetary reductions and these included zonal arrangements, extended working week, reducing green collections to three weekly, vehicle and route optimisation and varying shift patterns.  However, the cleansing refuse and recycling operation was at a critical stage in maintaining the required level of service against the backdrop of real time reducing budgetary provision. Accordingly, work was currently being undertaken to assess the likely future impact of expanding service requirements, and further details, including financial and operational requirements going forward would be considered in due course; and that Locality Services (Cleansing) would continue to seek ways to maximise its existing  expenditure and would continue, wherever possible, to increase efficiencies across the Refuse Collection Service.  As such, the service always welcomes any observations, comments and suggestions from any interested party, parties or stakeholders.

Members of the Committee asked questions/raised matters on the following issues:-

·         investigations into how other local authorities implement their black sack collection services to identify best practice and an example was provided of a service in operation in Holyhead

·         an evaluation of the benefits of disposing of food waste by landfill, incineration or composting

·         a forthcoming information campaign funded by the Merseyside Waste and Recycling Authority to alert the public of the benefits of recycling

·         concerns associated with the additional pressures placed on the refuse collection service by new housing developments in the borough and the potential budgetary implications if new refuse collection vehicles need to be purchased

·         the potential impact on the green waste collection service if charges were imposed 

·         refuse collection difficulties due to highway problems and the introduction of 

RESOLVED: That