Agenda item

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 than the previous approach of seeing coms as a project then moving on. Since starting in the post,  Anna had been able to build a base of coms activity to be as effective as possible.

·         Recycling  issues in flatted areas and HMOs were more difficult to address as it is the Landlords responsibility. It was thought by targeting the Landlord regularly about the issues and concerns the Landlord would take notice and take action.

·         Conversations were currently underway with the contractor around textiles collections.

·         The falling recycling rate was not just a local issue, but nationwide. This wasn’t helped by newspaper propaganda and residents moving from other areas which have different recycling regimes. There were many mixed messages which highlighted the need for better, stronger coms in simple language to get across to those residents who didn’t see the importance in recycling.

·         Fly tipping was continuingly monitored and had not increased in Bracknell Forest.

·         The table on page 19 of the report was one line on the risk register. The detailed data within the table was all the data that underpinned the one line within the Risk Register.

RESOLVED that:

      i.        Members endorse the cooperation between the waste collection client teams on making improvements to the performance of the respective kerbside recycling collections.

     ii.        Members approve the clarifications to the Waste Acceptance Protocol described at 5.14 to 5.17.

    iii.        Members endorse the performance monitoring regime described at 5.30 to 5.40.

   iv.        Members note the remaining contents of the progress report.