Agenda item

Councillor Wallace addressed the Committee on this item.

In summary, Councillor Wallace made reference to the following points which were responded to accordingly by Councillor Learney and the Service Lead: Environmental Services:

·       New plans provide a great opportunity for Hampshire to improve in its collection of recyclables.

·       The mandatory deadline of March 2025 for the start of food waste collections – would this be impacted by the long lead time for the zero emission vehicles required to collect this service and when would an order be placed?

·       Use of an anaerobic digester for treating food waste.

Councillor Learney introduced the item highlighting the importance of the waste collection and recycling service to residents, aspirations for increasing recycling collection rates for other materials and products and significant changes to Government regulations regarding waste collection.

The Service Lead: Environmental Services gave a detailed presentation which provided an overview of the council’s current waste and recycling collection service and Hampshire County Council’s statutory duty as the waste disposal authority. He highlighted the council’s current performance as an authority and set out the significant changes expected following national changes to Government waste proposals with the implementation of three new key phases, including extended producer responsibility, the deposit return scheme and consistency in the streamlining of recycling collections across England and raised the evaluation process surrounding the impact of these changes which would assist in improving to collection of recyclables to ensure the council goes greener faster in support of carbon neutrality targets.

The committee proceeded to ask questions and comment on the following matters which were responded to by the relevant Cabinet Member and the Service Lead: Environmental Services:

(i)             With the level of unpredictability of the current position and the scale of funding, was there a method to anticipate the risks from a revenue perspective moving forward. In response, it was noted that following discussions with Defra, regular meetings were taking place remotely with various local authorities to model what costs would be in the future. The council was due to hear in October/November how much money it would receive for 2024/25 from the extended producer responsibility funding. 

(ii)            The cost and impact of introducing extra bins throughout the district.

(iii)          The plans for consultation with the public on the waste and recycling programme – the authority to consult would be taken to Cabinet on 18 July 2023.

(iv)          Glass recycling across Hampshire.

(v)           Food Waste funding.

(vi)          Additional recycling opportunities – coffee pods, tetra paks etc – learning from local authorities that have higher collection percentages for recycling and have created successful volunteer groups to engage with residents.

(vii)         Increasing recycling opportunities in communal blocks of flats with shared bin storage areas. Audits were being carried out at these sites to understand existing provision and issues.

(viii)       Behavioural change of residents to ensure recycling is maximised and that adequate education and awareness measures are in place.

(ix)          National changes and consistency – improving and streamlining packaging consistency to aid recycling familiarity.

At the conclusion of debate, the committee supported the need for early ideas and thought processes to feed into the process, welcomed future updates on this matter and thanked officers for the progress carried out to date and for the informative presentation received.

RESOLVED:

                     That the contents of the report and presentation be received, and the comments raised by the committee, as summarised above, be      noted.