Agenda item

Recommendations

Executive is recommended to:

1)       adopt an alternate fortnightly kerbside recycling scheme across North Yorkshire providing residents with two wheeled bins for recycling and one wheeled bin for fortnightly residual collections.

2)       implement a bespoke kerbside service in areas that cannot adopt an alternate fortnightly two recycling bin scheme.

3)      to note the capital and revenue funding requirement of the decision is built into the 25/26 budget and medium term financial strategy which is being considered as a separate report to this meeting.

Considered – A report of the Corporate Director Environment seeking approval for adoption of an alternate fortnightly kerbside recycling scheme across North Yorkshire providing residents with two wheeled bins for recycling and one wheeled bin for fortnightly residual collections.  For those areas that cannot adopt an alternate, fortnightly two bin recycling scheme a bespoke kerbside service was recommended.  Executive were also asked to note that the capital and revenue funding requirement of the decision was built into the 2025/26 budget and medium-term financial strategy which was considered as a separate report at the meeting.

The Executive Member for Managing our Environment, Councillor Greg White, introduced the proposals, which would provide a consistent approach to waste and recycling across the county, and made the following points:

·       The proposals had been the subject of an all-party Member Working Group and public consultation had shown support for the proposals.

·       Households would have two recycling bins, one for paper and one for cans, glass and plastic, which would each be collected 4-weekly; residual waste would be collected fortnightly. 

·       The new system would be introduced in the Malton area first, and then rolled out across the county over a number of years, enabling current plant and equipment to remain in use until it was due to be retired.

·       The government had issued a report in November 2024 advising its preferred solution for waste collection, which was the same as what was being proposed.

·       As well as bespoke arrangements there would also be an option for people to request bins of different sizes if they preferred

Members welcomed the proposals and it was noted that the system was already in operation in Selby where it was working well and was supported by the public.  Over the long term the proposals would save money and lead to increased recycling rates

In response to a question from Councillor Bryn Griffiths on the 14.5 year payback the Executive Member stated that payback of 7.6% was good and provided a sound basis for progressing.  There was an element of risk in the figures as the future value of recyclates was not known.

Resolved (unanimously) – that

1)      adopt an alternate fortnightly kerbside recycling scheme be adopted across North Yorkshire providing residents with two wheeled bins for recycling and one wheeled bin for fortnightly residual collections.

2)      a bespoke kerbside service be implemented in areas that cannot adopt an alternate fortnightly two recycling bin scheme.

3)      it be noted that the capital and revenue funding requirement of the decision is built into the 25/26 budget and medium term financial strategy which is being considered as a separate report to this meeting.

Reasons for Recommendations

The alternate fortnightly approach using two recycling wheeled bins delivers the most efficient, effective, and resilient service to residents and businesses.

Alternative Options Considered

A detailed options appraisal ranks the different approaches (Appendix C). Nine assessment criteria were applied to the options modelled to form a representative view of the merits of each approach. The assessment criteria were financial cost, recycling performance, carbon impact, resident acceptability, manual handling by crew, ease of implementation, contamination, compliance with legislation, and political acceptability. Each criterion was reviewed by officers from all 7 WCAs and WDA to ensure fairness and suitability across the North Yorkshire area, to calculate a weighted score and rank the options.

The alternate fortnightly option with two recycling wheeled bins (Selby model) scored the highest, followed by the multi-stream option with three containers, with the fully comingled option scoring the lowest.

The proposed alternate fortnightly kerbside service is not suited to every location, and a degree of flexibility will ensure the service is designed to meet local needs. Currently, approximately 1 in 13 properties have non-standard kerbside services which reflects both the property type and access arrangements. There will be a staged process to determine eligibility for a bespoke service and to decide on the most appropriate tailored collection method. An initial screening exercise will be completed locality by locality and then street by street to identify where bespoke arrangements are required. Further refinement through engagement with the waste operations and housing teams, followed up by site visits where necessary will help to determine the proposed bespoke collection service. Engagement with residents on the proposal will ensure that the service is tailored to resident’s needs. It is likely that a range of bespoke collection methods will be considered as part of this process, including smaller bins, bags, frequent collections of smaller containers and community recycling points. It is clear that ‘one size fits all’ is not appropriate, and the proposed approach combines a harmonised approach with flexibility to deliver a service aligned to property types and access arrangements.