Agenda item

Cabinet Member Presentation

Presentation by Councillor Albon, Cabinet Member for Cleansing and Coastal Services on ‘Improving recycling in the district.’

Minutes:

Councillor Albon, Cabinet Member for Cleansing Services made a presentation at the meeting during his presentation made the following points:

 

·  The current rate of recycling in the district was 35.4%. That rate placed Thanet District Council (TDC)at position 250 out of 343 councils in England and eleventh position out of twelve councils in Kent County;

·  The above figures needed to be considered in a given context which is that Thanet District is none of the most deprived areas in in the county in comparison to other areas;

·  Currently TDC was receiving £310k annually from KCC for the waste collected by the Council. This payment would be replaced with a performance related payment which is the Extended Producer Responsibility Scheme (EPR);

·  This scheme was a regulatory reform effort to seek cost recovery form waste collection;

·  This new approach meant that the Council would need to ensure that collection rates increased in order to get increased payments from KCC;

·  The path to improve waste collection would include offering recycling to all households, promote garden waste collection service and adhere to the service standards for waste collection to ensure that there was no residual waste being collected;

·  Council would consider offering bespoke service for households that have storage space challenges like those living in flats;

·  Additional investment would need to be considered by the Council;

·  It would be a statutory requirement that all households would need to be offered food waste collection by April 2026;

·  TDC had received £142k as transitional funding for this change;

·  There was capacity for increasing garden waste collection by another 3,000 households;

·  The July promotion had increased the garden waste collection by 194 households. This promotion would be repeated in April 2025;

·  The Council would re-trail leafing.

 

The Panel asked questions and made comments as follows:

 

·  One member said that if the Council did not collect residual waste, it might end up in the streets. They further asked how the Council make households change their behaviour regarding waste collection;

·  The member suggested that rubble bags could be offered to households;

·  Another member said that it was encouraging to note that the Council was trying to find best ways for increasing household waste collection. They also asked if sharing of bins between neighbours could be considered. The member asked how the large red bags were proving to be a good way of collecting waste in HMOs and flats;

·  The Member further asked if new bins would be distributed to residents;

·  One member asked if there would be consideration of seasonal peaks and ebbs regarding waste collection in order to create flexibility for the service;

·  They also said that in instances where households were constantly leaving excess waste, they could be offered larger bins;

·  Another member welcomes the mixed recycling waste initiative. They asked if this approach would cover the whole district or would be for a proportion of the households;

·  They also asked how the new EPR scheme would impact on TDC;

·  One member asked if there were any plans for setting up recycling plants in the district and whether these could be placed at sites close to where households did not have storage;

·  They further asked if there were any plans for recycling plastics;

·  Another member asked if the Council was going on schools outreach as a way of getting through to families;

·  One member asked what the impact of KCC cuts were on TDC’s recycling service;

·  One member asked if information on services provided for each street could be shared with members and whether information on the percentage of households that were recycling in comparison to those that had a service provided;

·  Another member asked how the new changes to the service would be shared with residents.

 

Councillor Albon, Matt Elmer, Head of Cleansing Services and Mike Humber, Director of Environment responded as follows:

 

·  For TDC to bring recycling rate up, some new initiatives should be adopted and this would take some time to achieve as I would require a gradual process;

·  Communal bins worked very well specially for those properties along the seafront;

·  HMOs were still a big challenge. The enforcement team would need to look into HMOs;

·  Moving forward the Council would like to phase out red bags and replace them with red bins;

·  Changing behaviour through education was another way of improving household waste collection;

·  Mixed recycling for about 12,218 households was the best approach for increasing recycling;

·  The current quality of recycling was very good. The could would like to maintain that quality;

·  The Council would know in November how much it would get from the new EPR scheme, but it would be substantially more than the current payments. That fund would be invested in the district;

·  Plastic wrappers would be coming on stream for recycling;

·  Historically the Council has had problems with contamination at recycle sites. This was in addition to fly-tipping;

·  Kerb sites were a better option as these would be close to households that needed them;

·  The Council had an education officer who went around schools to make presentation and encourage children to recycle household waste;

·  KCC cuts had not significantly affected TDC. However lack of contact from KCC Highways was an issue that needed addressing, particularly on issues relating to waste collection vehicles finding it difficult to access some streets across the district when on collection rounds due to drivers parking on double yellow lines;

·  When new changes became imminent, the Council would issue out some communication and get the message out to residents. Such options like letter drops and door knocking would be considered;

 

The Panel noted the update and thanked Councillor Albon for the presentation.