Agenda item

Progress Report

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

Minutes:

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

Joint Waste PFI Contract. The report covered:

 

  • Background of re3
  • Performance
  • Communications
  • Plastic Campaign
  • Re3cyclopedia
  • Newsletter
  • Social Media

 

In view of the fact that some new Members of the Board had been introduced, the Board received a short briefing on the background to the re3 partnership:

 

  • The re3 partnership was originally formed to deliver the statutory disposal function of the three Councils. 
  • By working together, the three Councils were able to procure a significant contract and operate at a scale which would have been difficult as individual authorities. This is one reason why the facilities available to re3 residents are so well appreciated.
  • The shared strategic approach, directed by the re3 partnership is apparent in recent developments such as plastic recycling and the implementation of food waste recycling in Wokingham.
  • The re3 contract had proven flexible in addressing changes in legislation.
  • The re3 partnership exercises regional and national influence.

 

In relation to the existing re3 Strategy:

  • Progress in Objective C (Part A) for each of the Council’s was as follows:

Bracknell Forest Council – Target 43% Actual 45.97%

Reading Borough Council – Target 39% Actual 37.36%

Wokingham Borough Council – Target 53% Actual 54.13%

  • Available data covered April and May only.
  • Recycling rates tended to be higher at the start of the year than at the end of the year.
  • Recycling rates had increased from the same time last year. It was asked that, in future, the previous years figures be included on the graph as a comparison.
  • Wood recycling had increased recycling rates by c5%.
  • The introduction of food recycling had increased Wokingham’s recycling rates by c6%. 
  • Progress in Objective C (Part B) for each of the Council’s was as follows:

Bracknell Forest Council – Target 23% Actual 24.86%

Reading Borough Council – Target 24% Actual 19.92%

Wokingham Borough Council – Target 26% Actual 29.90%

  • The HWRC recycling rate was 20% higher than last year, this had been helped by the introduction of wood recycling and improvements in reuse. This was a good news story.
  • It was explained that the performance targets were set by the individual councils themselves and were in their final year. Conversations would be held over the course of the year in regards to setting new targets.
  • The communication plan for the plastic campaign had been presented at the last meeting. It was proposed that communications would be targeted in areas with the highest concentration of plastic material. The mapping (which determined areas to target) had been put together using the composition analysis that had been undertaken a few months back, this data was overlaid with demographic factors to target different groups. The information on plastic, on the re3 website, would be developed in accordance with the targeting and there would be a social media campaign. The target audience would be families with children at home who would recycle staple items but may sometimes be confused about other items. Finally, to address confusion, alongside the re3cyclopedia App, promotional material would be created, such as a ‘recycling wheel’ fully relating to plastic, with motivation and information on the back.  This would be delivered to households in the targeted areas. Reading university were promoting the re3 app as part of their freshers week in September.
  • The campaign would be launched in September.
  • The re3cyclopedia App would be continuing for the next year. There had been 6k users and 5.5k search’s in May and 5.6K search’s in June. There was potential for improvement. The app couldn’t tell the area, just what was being searched. There was 10k items in the apps database.
  • An re3 newsletter was a new area that was being explored. 1 newsletter a month would be sent to the members of a database (to be developed over time). The database was being built from scratch due to GDPR.The first newsletter covered refill day, Sue Ryder and re3 grow compost.
  • Social Media insight statistics had been included within the report for the first time. The engagement rate was 8% . Generally anything between 3%-5% was considered good. The average reach of top performing posts was to 10k residents.  Over 90% of the social media reach was within re3 borough, with the  majority being female.
  • Members would look at their diaries to see if there were any events that the re3 Communications and Marketing Officer could attend to promote re3. Some members were also willing to attend events with the officer and provide support and help wherever the could.

 

Supporting documents:

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk