Agenda item

Members to discuss outline of the Governments proposals

link to document:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/resources-and-waste-strategy-for-england

Members received a presentation following the publication of DEFRA’s Resources and Waste Strategy (R&WS) for England and linkages to the Joint Lincolnshire Waste Management Strategy (JLWMS).  The Cabinet had agreed to adopt the Joint Lincolnshire Waste Management Strategy at their meeting in December.  Since that meeting the Government had published the Resources and Waste Strategy for England which had timescales that were wide ranging and comprehensive.   There was close alignment between the Lincolnshire JMWMS and the R&WS and it gave an idea of the work and consultations that the Committee would be involved in during the coming months.  There were six main areas contained in the R&WS:

·         Overall strategic vision

·         Waste collections

·         Partnership working

·         Waste facilities

·         Innovation

·         Measuring performance

In the R&WS the overall strategic vision included multiple consultations on planned key issues with Government seeking to promote a circular economy as promoted in the Lincolnshire JMWMS.  Part of the multiple consultations included food waste collections which was topical within South Kesteven and the evidence locally will benefit any arrangements for Lincolnshire. It will be important to influence the Government’s Strategy to recognise the difference between those areas were food waste is going to landfill and those areas where there had been investment in other infrastructure, such as in Lincolnshire.    There were strong links between the JMWMS and the Governments promotion of a circular economy and the national strategy was also seeking a better quantity and quality in recycling in line with the JMWMS objective to standardise recycling across the County.  The national strategy also included promoting consistent dry recycling collections which aligned with objective 2 of the JMWMS.    The JMWMS included at objective 3 the consideration of having separate food waste collections, the national strategy spoke about introducing separate food waste collections.

Partnership working between the District and the County was better than it had been previously during the last five years which was again an area highlighted in the national strategy and also referenced at objective 9 within the JMWMS.  Another issue highlighted within partnership working was the updating of the recycling credit system and the JMWMS also referenced that more innovative ways were needed to fairly distribute costs and savings across districts.  Once the County took back the responsibility for letting the recycling contracts in the County from the district councils, overnight Boston, North Kesteven and South Kesteven lost a significant amount of money.  Over time that cost had fluctuated with the price of recycling on the world market and the prices per tonne were now in excess of the recycling credits.  This was a big issue and innovative ways were needed to find a cost saving treatment.

Waste facilities were another area identified within the national strategy and contained within the JMWMS where a review of household waste facilities had been identified within the action plan.  Household waste facilities needed to be fit for the future both locally and nationally.    New ways to treat waste had also been identified within the national strategy with new processing facilities such as Anaerobic Digestion for food waste.  Currently this was only used for food stock and farming.  During the food waste pilot the food waste was collected and stored at the Gonerby Hill foot facility near Grantham and then shipped to Helmswell Cliff, north of Lincoln.

The last slide gave a timetable of when the government consultations, targets and key milestones were tabled for.   Consultation on food waste was due mid-2019 and therefore would not come back to the Committee until after the elections.  Other milestones included the duty of care in relation to electric and electronic equipment which had a target of 2020.  In the past fines were given under the EU and these were cascaded down.   

He concluded by stating that it was how the Committee contributed to the national strategy using a Value For Money judgement.  Reference was again made to the food waste pilot and the timelines involved with the government consultations.  The Strategic Director Commercial and Operational indicated that the national strategy included a lot of information but the “devil was in the detail”.  More work would be done looking at the strategy to determine what the financial implications would be, it was unclear at this time what the impacts would be.

A Member asked if the key milestones slide could be sent in A4 format.

> Action Note

A copy of the milestone slide to be sent in A4 size to Members by e-mail.

One member asked about transposition which related to the circular economy, real on the ground packaging regulations, how they can be implemented.    The first consultation would be in relation to the deposit/return scheme, what were the proposals, what machines would be used, how would it work.  An example was given of a trial scheme which had operated in Scotland in the NHS in relation to coffee cups which had a unique ID code.  It was how schemes would work in the future, what technology was required, innovations such as using phones to scan codes.

It was mentioned that recycling rates were down to 43% and had been falling nationally in the past five-six years.     Germany introduced deposit/return schemes 15 years ago but we were only just thinking of introducing such schemes, it seemed to a certain extent that nationally we were not as far ahead as other countries.

The Assistant Director Commercial and Operation indicated that in relation to the food waste trial that we were in a better position than other authorities as we would have the evidence from the trial and be aware of pitfalls,  also there was already an energy from waste plant in use in the County which other areas did not have.

The Chairman thanked the officers for the presentation.