Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Joint Waste Disposal Board held on 30 September 2016.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Joint Waste Disposal Board held on the 30 September 2016 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Arising on the minutes it was noted:

Minute 14 – The dates of the next meetings had been set. These were 21 April 2017 at Longshot Lane and 7 July 2017 at Wokingham Borough Council.

Minute 38 – The new haulage contract had started and the new vehicles were now on site. The Chair raised concerns regarding parking the vehicles at Longshot Lane due to the narrowness of the site.

Minute 39 – There was no further information on the introduction of a Smartcard System. Members have previously agreed to support ‘self-serve’ and e-enabled service delivery through the re3 Partnership as appropriate.

Minute 5 – The DEFRA report had been publish just before Christmas. Officers would provide a briefing paper for Members.

Minute 7 – A notice of change had been submitted to the contractor to investigate collecting ‘other’ plastics, the contractor had 21 days to issue a response. Officers know that the response will detail trials on processing the ‘other’ plastics to ensure that the financial and environmental impact of such service change would be positive. The trials will be carried-out during March and April 2017. The other plastics included pots and tubs, tetra packs and film. It was hoped that by including these plastics in to the contract it would simplify recycling to residents and would reduce contamination costs.

Minute 7 – A formal invitation would be sent to Paul Taylor inviting him to the next Board Meeting on 21^st April 2017.

Minute 11 – Oliver Burt had met with the contactor regarding the Contractor Appraisal work. The meeting had been very positive.

Minute 17 – The Food Waste consultation had gone well, with 275 responses received so far which would help gain a good understanding on residents attitude and perception towards food waste.

There were no urgent items of business.

To consider a report on progress in the delivery of the re3 Joint Waste

PFI Contract and the re3 Strategy and to receive a presentation from Waste Collection Client Teams

The Board received a progress report and a presentation from the Waste Collection Client Teams.

The Waste Collection Client Teams  had been working together over the past three months on three work streams.

1.    Contamination Issue

2.    Recycling in Flats

3.    Kerbside Recycling

The Contamination work steam had been led by Janet Dowlman, Bracknell Forest Council, a full analysis had been undertaken towards the end of 2015 on the areas on contamination. The biggest areas of contamination were non recyclable paper such as wet paper, tissue and kitchen towels and non recyclable plastics, which made up nearly 50% of the contaminated recycling. Contamination of  glass was only 2.96%.

There was confusion with residents, as there were mixed messages surrounding what could and could not be recycled this resonated with a survey undertaken by WRAP in 2016 where two thirds of households were found to be unsure what items could be recycled. Residents were confused with the word contamination, as it didn’t relate to them.

In order to try and prevent contamination door knocking had been undertaken within Bracknell Forest, focusing predominantly on the poor performing areas and luggage tag type labels, which were waterproof,  were being attached to bins, which highlighted to residents what could and couldn’t be recycled.

David Moore, Reading Borough Council had been leading on the Recycling in Flats work stream which had been challenging and highlighted a number of common issues across the Boroughs, such as an increase in the number of flats being built and the provision of communal bins and recycling areas.

It was difficult to find a common approach and solution to mediate the issue especially as Reading Borough Council had small resources compared to the number of flats within the Borough. Due to the lack of storage within flats for recycling boxes, Reading Borough Council had introduced a bag for life type recycling bag which would hopefully encourage residents in flats to collect their recycling in to take down to the communal bins and recycling areas. They were hoping to introduce a similar bag for glass recycling.

Six WEEE bins would be places at selected flat developments within the Borough and tonnage would be monitored.

Pete Baveystock, Wokingham Borough Council led on the increasing Kerbside Recycling work stream. 2015/16 hadn’t been the best year the waste strategy and targets set within the strategy highlighted the need to increase the kerbside recycling tonnage.

The top ten recycling councils had all managed to reduce contamination for non regular waste and all included food waste collections

By pooling resources this would ensure a common approach across the councils highlighting best practice and strong day to day  communications were needed relaying the same information and same focus to target particularly the poor performing areas.

As a result of the Members’ questions, the following points were made:

·         Harmonising procedures  and working together would create better working opportunities going forward.

·         The introduction of the Communications post had allowed coms to happen on a more daily basis, rather  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

To receive a report updating the board on the marketing and communication work being carried out.

Anna Fowler, re3 Marketing and Communications Officer, presented a report to the Board briefing them on the marketing and communications work that was being carried out to support the re3 2016/17 Strategy objectives.

The first Love Food Hate Waste campaign session had happened in Bracknell Forest on the 26 January which had been very positive. The location of the sessions had been selected carefully, focusing on hard to hit areas. Anna requested that she attend a future Council meeting at each of the three Boroughs to give a short talk on the campaign.

A food waste reduction survey had been launched to residents in mid-December, this would help to gather knowledge on residents’ understanding of the amount of food that they waste.

The Chairman had been promoting recycling in schools in Bracknell Forest and requested that Members provide her with contact details of who she could approach within the Education Sectors at Reading and Wokingham to deliver the same within their schools.

There had been work to improve the re3 brand recognition and the signage at both sites will be refreshed.

Members were shown a short YouTube video which had been produced alongside ‘Mythbuster’ information and could be used across a variety of platforms to help dispel recycling confusion. They were also presented with posters  which had been created to show the benefits and aims of recycling, as well as suggesting how the savings from recycling could be spent.

Landfill costs had been included within the video to highlight how much cheaper it is to recycle. It was suggested that by including the opportunity cost of waste management, and providing examples of how waste management services could be diverted to other councils services, this would resonate better with residents.

Members thought that the ‘Mythbuster’ information was good. The Board requested that the posters be relooked at and reworked for future consideration.

RESOLVED that:

1. The Board note the contents of this report.

2. The Board recommends that the marketing and communications activity presented to them at the Board meeting be taken back and refined.

To consider a report on progress in the delivery of the re3 Strategy.

The Board received a report updating them on the progress in the delivery of the re3 Strategy.

The current re3 Strategy was intended to exist for 12 months. Members and Officers had been asked to respond to a questionnaire on the waste strategy. The data from this questionnaire would be used to inform the creation and delivery of a new re3 Strategy which would extend to three years through to 2020.

RESOLVED that Members note the progress made in satisfying the objectives which form the basis of the re3 Strategy.

RESOLVED that pursuant to Regulation 4 of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Access to Information) Regulations 2012, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of item 9 which involves the likely disclosure of exempt information under the following category of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972:

(3)        Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person.

To receive a report on  the Partnership’s current financial position.

The Board received a report briefing them on the Partnership’s financial position.

RESOLVED that:

      i.        Members note the Partnership’s financial position for the year to date.

     ii.        Members approve the proposed Recycling Centre charges for 2017/18 as described at 5.18 to 5.21 in the sums shown at Appendices 2A and 2B.

    iii.        Members endorse the approach to savings described and the saving targets for 2017-2019.