Agenda item

To brief the re3 Joint Waste Disposal Board on progress in the delivery of the re3 Joint Waste PFI Contract.

The Board received a report briefing them on the progress in the delivery of the re3

Joint Waste PFI Contract. The report covered:

·         re3 Waste Strategy Targets

·         Communications

The Board was advised that:

·         Given the timings of the JWDB, going forward provisional performance data for the re3 Waste Strategy targets would be provided.

·         Bracknell Forest’s current recycling rate was 38.9%.

·         Waste from incinerators could not be counted towards the recycling rate.

·         The Welsh Assembly had decided locally in Wales to include incineration in their recycling rate and they had set their national target on that basis. The government had resisted repeated calls to review across England. Hampshire County Council for example and had been active in lobbying the Government but had always been turned down as the Government’s view was that this was waste and not intended to be recycled.

·         Reading Council’s recycling rate was at 31.91%.

·         Wokingham Borough Councils recycling rate was 40.46%.

·         The two HWRC had different targets but both were performing at a similar recycling rate.

·         The re3 partnership had been engaged in a range of different communication campaigns across the three Borough’s over the preceding months.

·         The main focus had been on plastic recycling. With adverts in Council magazines, on Reading buses, in Civic Offices and a large screen outside Reading train station.

·         There had been an increase in the downloads of the re3 app, re3cyclopedia, reaching a peak of downloads in December. So far there were over three thousand users.

·         The app search function would also be added to Wokingham website which should increase popularity of the app.

·         The Lottabottle campaign had increased the brand’ visibility of re3 and also increased glass recycling tonnage by 4.35%.

·         There had been good engagement from schools, who were the biggest group of contributors to Lotta Bottle, and good social media coverage.

·         Festive communications had been carried out through press releases, adverts on social media and through an re3 social media advent calendar.

·         Over the festive period there had been high profile media exposure in regard to glass recycling, This had been reported at a national level, in outlets such as Sky News, BBC, ITV, The Daily Mail and the Mirror. The re3 Communications and Marketing Officer, expressed her thanks to all the Councillors for the help that they had given over this busy period. As a result of the coverage there had been a higher amount of media queries and interest.

·         The Board congratulated the team on their handling of the Christmas bottle bank issue and how it had been recognised as a good story.

·         External funding from Alupro had been received to advertise foil recycling. Fifty thousand promotional foil takeaway lids had been distributed to fourteen outlets across the three Boroughs.

·         There was currently a social media campaign for re3 residents to take a photo of themselves, recycling their foil takeaway containers to win a takeaway voucher. The reach of the hashtag would be reviewed once the campaign had finished and would be reported at the next meeting.

·         A new re3 website was currently being developed as the current website was not robust. The draft would be ready at the end of January and the link would be shared with the Board Members. The content would be similar to the current website.

·         re3 grow compost bags would be for sale from the start of March. Over 90% of the compost would be re3 material. A 40 litre bag will cost £3.50, with a multi buy offer of three bags for £10. A communication campaign to promote the compost would be starting in the coming weeks.

·         Due to the popularity of the compost last year, there would be six thousand bags available. This would be sold on stalls outside of the two HWRC sites.

·         The re3 Communications and Marketing Officer was keen to strengthen communication with community groups. Lead Officers said that would share the contact details with Monika of the Officers across the three Councils that already communicated regularly with these groups.

RESOLVED that Members note the contents of the report.