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 13 June 2024.

The minutes of the meeting held on 13 June 2024 were approved as a correct record

and signed by the Chair.

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.

Sarah Innes, Monitoring and Performance Officer for re3 presented the latest

Progress report and drew members’ attention to the following areas.

It has been the practice of the re3 Partnership to process plastic bottles and pots, tubs and trays in the UK. The contractor had recently advised that plastics could be sent into Europe for processing, making the most of market conditions. This would give flexibility for processing, as there was not going to be capacity in the UK for processing all of the UK’s plastic. Recyclers in Europe would go through the same checks as the UK facilities.

It was noted that Flex Collect,who took the partnerships flexible plastic film were likely to be considering off takers in Western Europe.

A function on the check in app at the recycling centres would be enabled to allow certain visits of interest to be flagged. This was particularly relevant to the commercial vehicle permits and would be able to identify any abuse of the system. The data protection notice already stated that usage would be monitored and the disclaimed signed by users when they sign up for the scheme stated that any misuse of the system would be investigated. The data gathered would be used to help draft any relevant policies.

The trade waste service currently had a restriction of 100 users which had been introduced to ensure there was no negative impact on access for regular users into the sites. Between July 2023 and June 2024 39 businesses were removed from the scheme due to low usage or failing to confirm they wished to renew their permit upon expiry therefore it was recommended to the board that an admin fee be introduced to encourage traders to only apply if they intend to make sufficient use the scheme.

Monika Bulmer, re3 Marketing and Communications officer, briefed the board on the Reuse Strategy. At the boards March 2024 meeting a draft reuse and repair strategy had been presented. The final version had been included within the agenda. The strategy took into consideration feedback received by the board and the public consultation, of which 3000 residents had taken part. Following the feedback a priority that had been brought forward would be the donation of reusable items, pop up shops and other reuse activity would still continue.

The Annual Environmental Report for 2023-2024 had been published. Within the report it highlighted a successful year with a 95.3% landfill diversion rate and high customer satisfaction, with over 90% satisfaction at key recycling centres.

It was noted that the partnership had been shortlisted for three MRW National Recycling Awards in November 2024, this included award nominations for the Flex Collect project, the Re3Grow scheme and digital innovation.

In response to questions, the following points were noted:

·       There were concerns about the environmental impact on plastics going to Europe and being transported on to other parts of the world.

·       If there was no processer space for plastics in the UK, then it would have to be sent  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

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 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.

To brief the re3 Joint Waste Disposal Board on the Partnership’s forecast financial position.

RESOLVED that

i.                 Members note the forecast financial position for the re3 Partnership as detailed at 5.1 to 5.8 of the report.

ii.                Members approve the proposed mitigations ((i) to reallocate, as WBC EfW tonnage, waste from BFC and RBC, and (ii) to redirect waste from secondary processing, to EfW as WBC waste) for the contractual tonnage shortfall, as described at paragraphs 5.9 to 5.28 of the report.

iii.               Members note that Officers will provide a detailed proposal on the Saving Options as described at 5.29 of the report, at the meeting of the JWDB in Spring 2025.