Agenda and minutes

It was proposed, seconded and

RESOLVED

          That Councillor D McNally be elected as Chairman of the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership for the year 2022 – 2023.

It was proposed, seconded and

RESOLVED

          That Councillor R A Wright be elected as Vice-Chairman of the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership for the year 2022 – 2023.

Apologies for absence were received from Anne-Marie Coulthard and Alan Robinson (South Kesteven District Council).

There were no declarations of interest at this point in the meeting.

RESOLVED

          That the minutes of the meeting held on 3 March 2022 be signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

(To receive a repot which provides an update of activities taking place in Partner authorities)

Partners received a report which provided an opportunity to share any information that may be of interest to the rest of the Partnership.  Written updates from each of the Partners had been provided.

(To receive a report by the LCC Waste Strategy Manager which provides the Partnership with an opportunity to consider the emerging national policy in relation to The Environment Act and how this might impact on Lincolnshire)

The Waste Strategy Manager presented a report which provided partners with an opportunity to consider the emerging national policy in relation to The Environment Act and how this might impact on Lincolnshire.  Consultations had been carried out by the government in 2020 and 2021, and formal responses were still awaited from two of the three consultations that were held.  In responding to the consultations, the LWP was generally supportive of the proposals but did express concern on a number of the details.

Partners were guided through the report, and some of the points highlighted included:

·       Working together, Lincolnshire was already collecting the majority of the dry recyclables that would be required, however there may be a need for the Partnership to consider the collection of plastic films in the future.

·       There was a specification in the Act that each material must be collected separately, however there could be some exceptions.  With the introduction of twin stream collections for paper and card, it was currently believed that it would be acceptable to collect metal, plastic and glass together.

·       There was a proposal that garden waste collections would become free for householders, and this was likely to create a funding gap for collection authorities.

·       There was also a proposal that food waste collection would become mandatory from all households and businesses, and it was likely that these collections would be weekly and be separate from other recyclables.  This waste must then be either recycled or composted.  Confirmation on a number of details, including the start date for these collections, was still awaited from government.

·       Funding to support consistent recycling collections from households may come through a producer responsibility scheme instead of new burdens funding.

·       The Environment Act had specified that there would be secondary legislation which required the payment of sums in respect of the costs of disposing of products and materials, which would be good news for local authorities.  However, there would be conditions attached to that which could include targets or benchmarking.

·       Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) currently had a start date of 2024, but this would be introduced on a phased basis.  Sampling of packaging would also be required to establish what funding would be due, and LCC was currently in the process of putting this in place with sampling available at all the waste transfer stations.  It was noted that business waste was currently being excluded from this system until 2028.

·       Further guidance was awaited in relation to the deposit return scheme.  The Environment Act did allow for secondary legislation to establish deposit return schemes.  The impact on the LWP would be the diversion of materials from the dry recycling scheme. The scheme for England would be All-in and would include plastic bottles and metals cans, but not glass bottles.  There would be some differences across the UK, for example the Scotland and Wales scheme had been specified as including glass bottles.

It was noted that, in light, of these changes, it was important that the LWP’s strategic thinking  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

(To receive a report by the LCC Waste Strategy Manager which provides an update on the Partnership’s Key Performance Indicators and provides the opportunity to consider the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership’s draft Annual Report)

Consideration was given to a report which presented an update on the suite of key performance indicators which measure progress against the vision and objectives set out in the LWP’s Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy (JMWMS).  It was highlighted that as this was the Partnership’s AGM, the update had been provided in the form of notes to accompany the draft LWP Annual Report for 2021/22, and the appendices of this included performance reporting.

It was highlighted that two documents were presented for consideration, the first was the Annual Review document which was a public facing summary and would be published on the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership’s web page on the LCC website.  The second document was the appendices, which contained the detailed data and was open to any additional feedback, and had been circulated separately.

(NOTE: Councillor D Evans joined the meeting at 3.07pm)

A presentation was shared which provided further details in relation to the key performance indicators including:

·       Overall performance – recycling performance had fallen over the past two years.  This seemed to be due to a change in behaviour due to the pandemic.  However, the good news was that less waste was being received overall, and the Partnership was below the 1000kg per household target.  Whilst rates were starting to increase again, they were not back to the pre-pandemic level.  A proposal was being put forward in the report that the targets were revised, as although the rate of 50% was aspirational, it would be difficult to achieve with the current rates.  However, this was something for further discussion by the Partnership.

·       Kerbside recycling contribution to KPI’s – this had fallen slightly compared to the previous year.  Also, less non-recyclable material was being received in these collections.  In terms of the targeted recyclables, when added to the twin stream paper and card collections was consistent with the previous year, and better than it was pre-Covid.

·       Composting – contribution to KPI’s – this was consistent with the previous year, although there seemed to be a slight downward trend.

·       Kg per Household by Final destination – the amount of waste going to the energy from waste and landfill had increased, and the amount of waste going for recycling/composting had reduced slightly. 

·       Proposed contamination KPI – non-recyclables in kerbside recycling collections – there had been a significant reduction in contamination, both in terms of percentage and in terms of kg per household.  Contamination was now below 28% and this had been achieved through the Right Thing Right Bin campaign and also by rejecting which contain non-recyclable material.

It was noted that two other themes had been identified from the Strategic Objectives, one of these was carbon, and new data was available which would give more accurate results, and work was underway on this.  The other theme was Customer Friendliness.  Customer engagement continued to be a focus of services, including working with the Recycling Panel of residents, seeking views through County News.  However, in terms of measuring this, it did not seem  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

(To receive a report by Councillor M Whittington, Cabinet member for Waste and Climate Change, South Kesteven District Council, which provides an update on the separate food waste collection trial which took place between June 2018 and March 2022)

The Partnership received the final report following the completion of the Food Waste Collection Trial carried out by South Kesteven District Council which commenced in June 2018.  This trial was funded by Lincolnshire County Council until June 2020, and then funded by South Kesteven until March 2022.  It had been hoped the national roll out for separate food waste collection would have happened before the end of the trial, but this had not been the case.  The report set out the details of the pilot scheme, the collection model, and the results.  A cost comparison to roll out food waste collections to all properties in the district was also included.

It was reported that two vehicles had been purchased at the start of the trial, however the maintenance costs were such that if the trial was to be continued new vehicles would need to be purchased.  It was noted that 4,500 properties had been included in the trial, in both rural and urban areas, and the food waste had been collected on a weekly basis.

Over the course of the trial the volume of waste collected declined, and it wasn’t clear what the reason for this was.  It was possible that people had become more aware of food waste and changed their behaviours, or there could have been a boredom factor.   However, there was evidence from other trials carried out around the country, that suggested that tonnage did drop off after a period of time, and this could be a combination of factors including behaviour change as people became more aware of the amount of food they were throwing away.

Discussions took place regarding the types of vehicles which may be needed if this was rolled out in future, and it was expected that there would need to be dedicated fleet, fuelling would be critical, as Lincolnshire’s infrastructure was not ideally placed for this kind of activity.  There would need to be a lot of discussions and negotiations with the commercial sector.  The other main issue would be supply chain and delivery issues, as all authorities would be going out to market at the same time.  It would be beneficial for districts to be able to work together in order to find efficiencies for collections.

it was queried if it was possible to calculate the environmental impact of collecting food waste separately and transporting it to an anaerobic digester compared to it being collected and transported to the Energy from Waste facility.  As it was highlighted that food waste did have a high calorific value and so was beneficial to the operation of the facility.  There was a need to reduce the environmental impact of council activities.  The rationale for separate food waste collection seemed to come from the government’s perception that food waste went to landfill.  It was suggested whether that piece of work could be carried out and brought back to the Partnership.  Officers advised that this was something which could fit in to the carbon assessment work  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

(To receive a report which presents the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership’s Forward Plan for consideration, and invites Partners to suggest items for consideration at future meetings)

The Partnership’s forward plan was considered.  It was commented that discussions were taking place with North and North East Lincolnshire, and it was noted that North East Lincolnshire were also carrying out a food waste collection trial, and it was suggested whether representatives could be invited as observers to attend a future meeting, and that they may have data that they would be willing to share with the Partnership.  It was noted that a working group had already been set up with North and North East Lincolnshire, which had been very useful.  It was suggested that this was something which could be progressed by the Waste Strategy Officers Group.

RESOLVED

That the forward plan, as presented, be noted.