Agenda item

Considered – A report by Michael Leah, Assistant Director, Travel, Environment and Countryside Services at the County Council regarding the waste collection and treatment in North Yorkshire.

It was noted that the Government is still in the process of responding to consultations in this area, so the plans are not fully finalised at the moment.

The key points from the presentation of the report are as summarised below:

·       There are three main ways of collecting waste from the kerbside in North Yorkshire: co-mingled, twin stream and multi-stream. The borough and district councils each use one or a combination of these methods, there is no uniformity currently.

·       At a national level no method is seen as the best way to collect waste. The existing methods used are based on the challenges for particular locations, with lots of variety across North Yorkshire between rural and urban areas.

·       The Resources and Waste Strategy for England will be enacted as part of the Environment Act. The Government undertook three consultations last summer, on extending producer responsibility, introducing a deposit return scheme and consistency in collection.

·       As part of the Environment Act, core recycling materials will be defined for local authorities to collect for recycling or composting, and these must be collected separately, taking into account the economic and environmental implications.

·       It is expected that there will be a mandate for food waste to be collected separately.

·       As part of the Local Government Reorganisation process, officers are working towards a single, uniform service solution for North Yorkshire, which will aid clear communications to residents across the county and expected to lead to waste minimisation.

·       There should be benefits of this through economies of scale in terms of vehicles and bins, route optimisation and consolidation of the processing of collected material. With a consistent approach, this should lead to savings with reduced support required from the back office.

·       There is expected to be significant environmental benefits to implementing a consistent collection service across the county.

·       There remains a lack of clarity around the Resources and Waste Strategy, therefore officers are working with district and borough council colleagues to progress options quickly ahead of any Government announcements.

·       On waste treatment, there are three approaches to consider: Reconfigure the existing mechanical treatment at Allerton Waste Recycling Plant, looking at merchant facilities such as an Anaerobic Digester, or procuring new facilities to carry out the changes.

·       The Government response to the Extended Producer Responsibility (ERP) consultation to transfer the cost of packaging material to the manufacturer is awaited. Therefore, when designing those products the manufacturers design it with less waste, but delayed 12 months until 2024.

·       It is expected that the proposals set out in the Deposit Return Scheme and the Consistency of Collections consultations will be going ahead, which means a mandatory weekly food waste collection. It is anticipated that the money raised from the ERP will go towards funding the food waste collections.

·       Other changes include mandatory introduction of an in-store take back of disposable cups and mandatory recycling labels from the end of March 2026

There followed a discussion, the key points of which are summarised below:

·       County Councillor Andy Paraskos queried the rate of recycling shown in the presentation for Harrogate and how the cost of the introduction of a separate food waste collection would be funded. Michael Leah responded that the Government have indicated that the ERP scheme would go towards funding the mandatory food waste collection.

·       County Councillor Paul Haslam asked about the scope for efficiencies and the time it would take to work through this, in line with policy changes from Government. A ‘waste dating’ service was suggested, to try and reuse waste wherever possible. Michael Leah responded by highlighting that it was key for households to reduce waste initially, ahead of any reuse or recycle. The opportunity to work together with district and borough colleagues as part of Local Government Reorganisation will make it easier to advance ideas such as a potential ‘waste dating’ service in the future.

·       County Councillor David Staveley suggested a European-style waste collection service with waste disposal via communal skips. Michael Leah responded that whilst communal waste collection may work in an urban setting with lots of households in close proximity, in rural locations this could be difficult in terms of the location of the skips. There was also the reaction of residents to such a change to consider, moving away from the wheeled bins for each property they have become used to.

·       County Councillor David Staveley responded that the construction of new builds are an opportunity to think differently, noting the introduction of solar panels and EV chargers into more new properties. Planning policy could be revised to promote these options to property developers.

In summing up the discussion, County Councillor Stanley Lumley thanked Michael Leah for attending and felt there was a big challenge ahead for waste collection and treatment as part of the new unitary authority. It was important that there is no service interruption to residents, with continuity needed initially before any remodelling of services takes place.

It was felt appropriate for a report to return towards the end of 2022 to update Transport, Economy and Environment Overview and Scrutiny committee members on progress.

Resolved:

1)          That the report be noted.

2)          That a report come back to the committee towards the end of 2022 to provide a further update.