Agenda item

Food Waste and Absorbent Hygiene Products - Collection Trial

Minutes:

Rob Anderton, Divisional Leader for Commercial Services and Contracts, introduced the report which set out proposals to work in partnership with WSCC to trial a weekly food waste and absorbent hygiene product collection alongside a restructured residual waste collection frequency across approximately 3,000 properties in Mid Sussex.

 

A Member enquired whether bin liners will be provided to help with the disposal of food waste.

 

The Divisional Leader for Commercial Services and Contracts confirmed that bin liners will not be provided however residents are welcome to use their own compostable bin liners or newspaper.

 

The Member then sought clarifications on the implications for food waste being left in the bins and then attracting insects.

 

The Divisional Leader for Commercial Services and Contracts stated that the food waste bins will be collected weekly, where it is currently collected on a fortnightly basis as part of the residual waste, and recommended cleaning the bins regularly during the summer period as many people already do with their residual waste bin.

 

A Member noted that a number of households travel to the household waste and recycling sites when their landfill bins are full and enquired whether that contributes to the household collection statistics. He added that the Council should avoid pushing people to use household waste and recycling sites.

 

Judy Holmes, Assistant Chief Executive, explained that the waste collected at the household waste and recycling sites does not contribute to the Mid Sussex household collection statistics. She added that the Council will need to engage with residents in the trial areas with the hope of encouraging them to become champions for the food waste collection; it was noted that the operational aspects of running the service should not be an issue but it will be of great importance to communicate how the service will operate to residents in the trial area.

 

A Member referenced Paragraph 12 of the report and questioned how the assumptions on the Modelling Exercise were arrived at. She also sought clarification as to why the food waste is being transported to Basingstoke when there is an anaerobic digester near Warnham that could deal with the waste.

 

Jo Reid, Business Unit Leader for Waste, Landscapes and Leisure explained that evidence suggests that when residents engage with recycling service changes, residents become more aware of the other services available (such as dry recycling and garden waste) and recycle more as a result.

 

The Divisional Leader for Commercial Services and Contracts stated that the anaerobic digester at Warnham is used to manage residual waste and the food waste contained within. The organic matter extracted from that waste has other material within it which reduces the quality of material produced; it cannot therefore be used for the same range of uses and is not counted as recycling. He added that the County Council has a strong desire to have a facility within the County and sites are currently being explored.

 

A Member sought clarification as to whether tea bags can be recycled in the food waste bin.

 

The Business Unit Leader for Waste, Landscapes and Leisure confirmed that they can be.

 

A Member requested a brief description on what the communications plan for this project would entail.

 

The Divisional Leader for Commercial Services and Contracts stated that the plan will be wide reaching, comprising written communications, door knocking, FAQs on the website and communications through social media.

 

The Assistant Chief Executive asked that Members who find themselves located in the pilot areas champion the service and encourage all their local residents to engage and participate in the trial. She also noted that the Council will be engaging with schools and local groups to further promote awareness.

 

A Member was supportive of the scheme. However, he believed that the 1-2-3 collection regime may cause confusion amongst residents and enquired how the service was received in Daventry. He also enquired whether the food waste collections will take place on the same day as current collections.

 

The Divisional Leader for Commercial Services and Contracts stated that Officers recently visited Daventry and discussed the potential operational and service-related issues associated with the 1-2-3 service. They confirmed that they shared many of the same concerns before launching the service, but the response from their residents has been overwhelmingly positive. He added that Daventry’s approach to communicating the new service to residents was shortlisted for an award, and the trial in Mid Sussex will be making good use of their good practice in this respect. All properties in the trial area will receive a collection calendar similar to that provided in the appendix to the report and the food waste collection day will be added alongside the current collection days.

 

A Member questioned what knowledge the Council has about the comparisons of the impact of CO2 emissions for the waste disposal to the previous procedure and the impact on the increased collections for the Council’s carbon footprint.

 

The Assistant Chief Executive noted that introducing food waste collections has the same environmental impact as taking one in four cars off the road. She thanked the Member for raising this and said that ongoing discussions to identify metrics for measuring the impact of the service are taking place with WSCC.

 

The Divisional Leader for Commercial Services and Contracts highlighted that evidence shows that a reduction in the food waste generated by residents comes about from residents reducing their waste when they see how much food they are wasting.

 

Councillor John Belsey, Cabinet Member for Environment and Service Delivery referred to a meeting he recently had with Serco, the waste collection contractor. He noted that Serco will be undertaking telephone surveys to gather feedback on the service as a whole and they are actively progressing ways of reducing the environmental impact of waste collections by looking at driver behaviour, implementing bin sensors and potentially introducing an electric fleet. He noted that there are many more improvements to come to improve the environmental impact of waste collection.

 

A Member enquired whether Councils have any powers to assist housing developers with the facilitation of food waste stores when they are planning their development.

 

The Divisional Leader for Commercial Services and Contracts stated that he works closely with their planning colleagues to ensure homes are built with sufficient space for wheelie bins.  He added that the food waste bin is much smaller than the other bins and could even fit in resident’s kitchens.

 

The Assistant Chief Executive noted that the Mid Sussex Design Guide seeks to improve design of new housing and will be considered by this Scrutiny Committee.

 

A Member raised concerns over the potential apathy of some residents in not wanting to take up the scheme and enquired how officers will approach the situation.

 

The Divisional Leader for Commercial Services and Contracts stated that the Council will apply the same approach to contamination or non-participation as the Council currently does to dry recycling. The Council will also seek to engage with residents to encourage them to recycle responsibly.

 

A member commented that some people may feel they do not generate enough food waste to participate in the scheme, so it was important that it was made clear that no amount of food is too little to recycle.

 

Another Member enquired as to the security of the outside food waste caddy, seeking assurance that it was animal-proof.

 

The Business Unit Leader for Waste, Landscapes and Leisure confirmed that the proposed caddy had a locking device, which would ensure animals could not gain access to its contents.

 

The Chairman highlighted that communication would be key in the successful introduction of the Pilot. She then noted that no other Member wished to speak so moved to the recommendation, which is to recommend to Cabinet that the Council, in partnership with WSCC trial a food waste and absorbent hygiene products collection in three areas in Mid Sussex, which was agreed unanimously.

 

RESOLVED

 

The Scrutiny Committee agreed to recommend to Cabinet that the Council, in partnership with WSCC trial a food waste and absorbent hygiene products collection in three areas in Mid Sussex.

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