Agenda item

The Chairman welcomed Lincolnshire County Councillor Eddie Poll, Chairman of the Joint Municipal Waste Partnership, Matthew Mitchell from Lincolnshire County Council and Councillor Faye Smith Portfolio Holder for Remarkable Place to the meeting.

 

Steve Bird, Assistant Director Communities and Street Scene introduced the draft Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy (JMWMS) document to provide members with an opportunity to comment so that Councillor Smith Portfolio Holder could take account of committee’s view in drafting the response on behalf of the City Council. 

 

Matthew Michell on behalf of the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership gave a power point presentation highlighting the following main points:

 

a.    the draft strategy set out how the eight local authorities in Lincolnshire and the Environment Agency would be working in partnership to deliver sustainable waste management services and deliver best value for money.

 

b.    the key strategic drivers were:

·         Increase in waste growth

·         Waste going in the wrong bin

·         EU Circular Economy Package

·         Brexit

·         25 Year Environment Plan

·         Defra Resources and Waste Strategy

·         Chinese Recycling Market

 

c.    the vision of the JMWMS was:

·         “To seek the best environmental option to provide innovative, customer-friendly waste management solutions that give value for money to Lincolnshire”

 

d.    the 10 key objectives of the JMWMS were:

 

1.            To improve the quality and therefore commercial value of our recycling stream.

2.            To consider moving towards a common set of recycling materials.

3.        To consider the introduction of separate food waste collections.

4.        To explore new opportunities of using all waste as a resource in accordance with the waste hierarchy.

5.        To contribute to the UK recycling target of 50% by 2020.

6.        To find the most appropriate ways to measure our environmental

7.        To seek to reduce our carbon footprint.

8.        To make an objective assessment of whether further residual waste recovery/disposal capacity is required and, if necessary, seek to secure appropriate capacity.

9.        To regularly review the LWP governance model in order to provide the best opportunity to bring closer integration and the implementation of the objectives set by the strategy.

10.      To consider appropriate innovative solutions in the delivery of our waste management services.

e. the draft strategy also included:

 

·         key legislation

·         an assessment of current services

·         themes for actions to achieve

·         the objectives

·         what happened beyond the adoption of the strategy.

 

f.     the draft strategy was currently out for consultation with:

·         elected Members

·          the wider public

·          parish councils

·         businesses

·         neighbouringauthorities. 

 

f.     early consultation responses had been received with common themes being identified:

·         Researching alternative countries recycling effort.

·         Balancing economic and environmental benefits

·         Simplifying recycling to make it easier

·         Public needed better guidelines on what to recycle

 

g.    the draft strategy would be revised following feedback from the consultation process and this would then be considered for approval and adoption by each of the eight authorities the target timeframe was by the end of 2018.

 

h.    supporting  the strategy an action plan would be in place which would be reviewed annually.

 

The presentation was debated and the following issues were raised:

 

·         Members were broadly supportive of the draft Strategy, and supported the comments in the proposed draft response.

·         Members felt that communication was key to promote what could be included in bins for recycling and suggested that information could be sent out with Council Tax bills, social media and Your Lincoln.

·         Members felt that it was important to simplify the current recycling system and if possible all of the local authorities have the same or very similar system.

·         Members raised issues on fly tipping in the City and commented on the causes of this associated with HWRC restrictions, and added that enforcement needed to be increased.

·         Members commented on the waste disposal centres and the difficulty for people in full time work to use them. They suggested that the service could be improved by amending the opening times which would encourage more people to use them.

·         Members commented that it was important that the consultation was as wide as possible to ensure it captured everyone’s views and suggested that more social media be used to promote the consultation.

·         Members suggested that recycling should be promoted at the University on a regular basis as it was a large demographic and there was a lot of movement in the attendees at the University.

·         Members supported  the food waste proposals in principle and noted the implications on disposal resulting.

·         Members supported the South Kesteven District Council pilot scheme for food waste collections, and they recognised that this was not straight forward and that there were wider implications to be considered before a full roll-out. They noted that the waste was producing bio-methane, which was being used to produce electricity

·         Members recognised the need for significant changes to the current position and that officers needed to be supported to implement well thought through and financially viable change in due course

·         Members supported the plastic straw campaign of some drink retail outlets.

 

Councillor Poll, Councillor Smith and Matthew Mitchell were thanked for the presentation and their time spent debating the topic.

 

RESOLVED that the draft response at appendix b of the report be supported and the comments made above be considered by the Portfolio Holder for inclusion in the formal consultation response.