Agenda item

Household Waste Recycling Centres

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed Steve Scott, Head of Waste Management, to the meeting. The report presented explained that the Household waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) service was brought in-house on 1st April 2018 after many years of being delivered by a third party under contract.

 

Members were informed that addressing these issues would be a priority for the waste team. However, the move to in-house provision also gave the opportunity to conduct a fundamental review of all aspects of the recycling centre service which had generally been in its current format for more than two decades.

 

It was highlighted that the application of the Waste Hierarchy by local authorities was a requirement of the Waste Regulations 2011. It ranked waste management options according to what was best for the environment. The committee commended the Waste Management Team on the use of the Waste Hierarchy and the way it put it into practice as best it could.

 

Members were advised that in January 2017 the council bought out the bric a brac contract at the Preston HWRC and opened a reuse shop stocked by waste diverted from the recycling centre.

 

The Waste Service wanted to push the reuse agenda. It was intended that the council adjusted the focus of its recycling centres to ensure greater reuse of the waste delivered and seek to generate social value. This would mean changes in the way the facilities currently operated. There would be more direct engagement with the public and staff would actively sort through the items delivered. It was intended that a detailed communications and education campaign about reuse be developed, including promotion of the social value that the council was achieving from its reuse activities through media, social media, on the website and at the recycling centres themselves.

 

It was noted that reuse would not reduce landfill and reuse activities were also resource intensive from a staffing perspective. However, there clearly existed an opportunity to operate recycling centres in a manner which was better for the environment, supported communities, other organisations and Lancashire residents. There was also an opportunity to make better use of the resources delivered to recycling centres which were currently treated as waste.

 

The committee was informed that the plastics market in the UK now had a surplus of better quality plastics than the hard plastics Lancashire had in its recycling centres. The decision was therefore taken to withdraw the hard plastic skips until there was a guaranteed outlet for them. A trial was running at the moment at two sites in Lancashire with a processor who was willing to take good quality plastics and the staff on these sites would separate the plastics themselves as long as the plastics were clean.

 

It was noted that since the introduction of the Inert Waste Policy the level of fly tipping in Lancashire had increased. Members enquired if there was a possibility to change the policy in order to mitigate fly tipping. It was confirmed that a lot of work had been done monitoring fly tipping. Lancashire Waste Partnership had a Fly Tipping Working Group in place to report back to the Waste Partnership.

 

The committee was informed that arrangements could be put in place regarding access for volunteer litter picking groups taking waste to HWRCs.

 

Concerns were raised about the security at HWRCs. It was confirmed that the Waste Management Team was aware of the security issues. A multi-agency group had recently been introduced at Chorley HWRC. This group included LCC, the district council, the police and local residents to look at the security problem.

 

The Waste Management Team confirmed that there had been teething problems regarding transport. There was a new transport contractor in place and trucks were now arriving at sites with skips.

 

Members questioned the reduction of opening hours at the HWRCs. Reduction of opening hours was not about reducing service but about what service was needed for certain sites to make them more efficient. The Waste Management Team was reviewing the services it had to see how they could be made more efficient.

 

The committee requested that the portfolio holder inform members what his views on the policy issues were.

 

Resolved: That;

 

  i.  The report be noted;

  ii.  The outcome of the service review be reported back to a future meeting of the committee.

 

Supporting documents: