Issue - meetings

Purpose of Report

To provide the Executive with an opportunity to consider the new draft Municipal Waste Strategy document for Lincolnshire.

Decision

That the Executive:

(1)       Endorses the proposed Municipal Waste Management Strategy attached at Appendix A to the report, subject to the Strategy in the same form being formally adopted by all waste collection authorities in Lincolnshire.

(2)       Agrees that funding be used from the Business Rate pilot 2018/19 as the City of Lincoln Council’s contribution towards the shared post of project manager for the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

None.

Reason for Decision

The Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy for Lincolnshire attempted to set out how members of the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership could work together to protect the environment by delivering sustainable waste management services through the establishment of best value waste management practices across the county.

At the meeting of the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership on 8 March 2018 the draft Strategy was approved for public consultation, which was launched on 4 April 2018 and closed on 2 July 2018. During this period the draft Strategy was submitted to the City Council’s Policy Scrutiny Committee for consideration. Feedback was minuted and taken into account as part of redrafting the Strategy.

The Strategy encompassed ten proposed objectives, noted as follows:

(i)            to improve the quality and therefore commercial value of our recycling stream;

(ii)          to move towards a common set of recycling materials;

(iii)         to consider the introduction of separate food waste collections where technically, environmentally and economically practicable;

(iv)         to explore new opportunities of promoting waste minimisation and of using all waste as a resource in accordance with the waste hierarchy;

(v)          to contribute to the UK recycling targets of 50% by 2020 and 55% by 2025;

(vi)         to find the most appropriate ways to measure our environmental performance and set appropriate targets;

(vii)        to seek to reduce our carbon footprint;

(viii)       to make an objective assessment of what further waste processing/disposal capacity is required and, as necessary, secure appropriate capacity;

(ix)         to regularly review the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership governance model in order to provide the best opportunity to bring closer integration and the implementation of the objectives set by the strategy;

(x)          to consider appropriate innovative solutions in the delivery of our waste management services.

In order to achieve these objectives the Strategy was accompanied by an action plan which would be reviewed and revised annually to ensure that it remained up to date and addressed any new challenges arising during the lifetime of the Strategy. It was noted that the Council would not be signing up to the content of the action plan at this stage, with the Strategy document being that which was currently in the process of going through the decision-making processes of all local authorities in the county.

All members of the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership, apart from one, had agreed to jointly fund a project manager to support the work programme arising from the action plan. This was estimated to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 70