Agenda and draft minutes

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or affected interests in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

Any Member with an affected Interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting.  There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Joint Waste Disposal Board held on 8 October 2020.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Joint Waste Disposal Board held

on the 8 October 2020, be approved as a correct record and signed by the

Chairman.

There were no urgent items of business.

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

The Board considered a report on progress in the delivery of the re3 Joint Waste PFI

Contract. Andy Edwards, Assistant Director Environmental & Commercial Services

introduced the report.

The report covered:

·         Waste Flows (since commencement of virus Lockdown/beginning of 20/21)

·         re3 Waste Statistics

·         Ongoing Operation of re3 HWRCs as Covid-19 Measures Evolve

·         User Satisfaction

·         Lakeside Energy from Waste and Heathrow

·         Chargeable Wastes at HWRC

·         Trade Waste Service

·         re3Grow

·         re3Paint

·         WRAP Contamination Project

·         Clinical Waste

·         Climate Change

·         re3 Strategy and Partnership

·         Review of Performance Monitoring

·         Communications

The report covered the changes that had been made to the re3 booking system, which now allowed users to cancel their bookings if they no longer required them, in time for potential reallocation.

The annual user satisfaction survey couldn’t be conducted in the usual way due to the pandemic, so was conducted using an online form during December. More than 3000 responses were received across both sites, with satisfaction levels scoring high.

The main phase of a project aimed at understanding and targeting contamination, in Bracknell and Reading, had been completed, and the provisional results in the trial areas were positive.

A review of the chargeable waste rates at the HWRC had also been concluded. The  charges, for non-Household Waste types, are  for costs only, with no profit being made. Officers reported the proposals to reduce the cost for some items such as soil and rubble.

The re3 reusable paint scheme was now available for residents at the HWRC sites.

To help improve information to residents about recycling and to help reduce untidyiness and/or fly-tipping at bottle bank sites, new stickers were being applied to bottle banks. The stickers feature a QR code, which can be scanned by smartphones for access to a web-page containing information about the appropriate use of the bottle banks. The information is available in English as well as being translated into 6 other languages, in use across the re3 area.

A range of educational webinars covering topics of recycling and waste management

had been delivered to re3 residents via Zoom in November and December 2020, these covered topics including the benefits of food waste recycling and festive recycling tips and statistics.

The situation regrading the transmission of the Covid-19 virus had been worse than last March/April amongst staff. At one point up to 24 re3 staff were having to self-isolate due to family members displaying symptoms or having been contacted by track and trace. There were no service reductions at present, but all contingencies put in place in Spring 2020 remained open.

Members reported that feedback received about the online booking system had been very positive, and it was felt that a booking system should remain going forward. Officers agreed that a review would take place in June 2021, where options for the system could be looked at in detail. It was requested that a paper be brought to the Board at its July meeting.

Since introducing the facility to cancel bookings, on the Recycling Centre booking system, overall numbers of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

The next Joint Waste Disposal Board is scheduled for Thursday 29 April 2021.

The Group was reminded that its next meeting would be held at 9.30am on Thursday 29 April 2021.

To consider the following motion:

That pursuant to Regulation 4 of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Access to Information) Regulations 2012 and having regard to the public interest, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of item 7 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.

NB:      No representations have been received in response to the notice under regulation 5 of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012

RESOLVED that pursuant to Regulation 21 of the Local Authorities (Executive

Arrangements) (Access to Information) Regulations 2000 and having regard to the

public interest, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of item 8 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 brief the re3 Joint Waste Disposal Board on the Partnership’s current financial position.

The Board received a report which briefed them on the Partnership’s current financial position and to confirm the second draft budget.

RESOLVED that

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

     ii.        Members noted  the contents of the financial report.

The Board received a presentation from Oliver Burt, re3 Strategic Waste Manager and Project Director, as part of their re3 Workshop. Following the presentation, it was planned that the separate Councils would then hold their own individual workshops. The presentation was intended to inform these individual workshops and each council would set aspirations and objectives, which would be brought back to the board.

Arising from the presentation, the following points were made:

·         In January 2020 a new strategic pathway had been discussed, which had been delayed while the councils focused on issues related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

·         The last 12 months had been difficult, but great recognition, of the work done throughout waste management during the pandemic, had been received.

·         Both facilities were up for a Recycling Facility of the year award.

·         A strategic pathway had been introduced in 2016, since then plastic and wood recycling had been introduced, improvements made to HWRCs and food waste recycling had been introduced in Wokingham and would shortly be introduced in both Reading and Bracknell.

·         Collectively across the partnership £14m was spend on collection, £23m was spent on disposal, there were £5m on overheads, £8m of income from services such as garden waste collection, charges levied on non-household waste and from government grants. The net cost was circa £35m.

·         There was great scope to make changes to the processes.

·         There were a number of current factors that needed to be thought about at present, these included market demand, public engagement, legislation, Covid and Climate Change.

·         The partnership manged to successfully accommodate the different approaches of each Council.

·         It was important for Bracknell Forest Council that their imminent service roll outs be successful. Similarly, for Reading, where services in flats were also of importance Dry paper and card collection changes for Wokingham were important for 2021/22.

·         The focus for the re3 partnership during 2021 were to ensure recycling waste from disposal would help reduce cost and improve environmental outcomes.

·         Reducing contamination would help increase recyclability and help reduce costs.

·         The HWRCs would be focusing on reviewing the booking system, and also help visitors to maximise the efficiency of their trips.

·         The HWRCs would also be seeking ways of reusing more locally.

·         The change in demographics and population growth of residents need to be looked at more closely from a waste perspective. ONS modelling showed an aging population between 2020 – 2040. This may change the way waste is collected and how the service is changed going forward.

·         As a result of the pandemic, it is possible that more people may be move out of cities, to areas such as the ones covered in the partnership.

·         If 40% of the recyclable material in residual waste was captured and recycled, then significant savings and efficiencies could be made in 2021.

·         The re3 partnership used only 3 material processors used that were not in the UK.

·         Vehicles and haulage needed to be looked at as part of the environmental impacts.

·         A synthesis of energy usage and generation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.