Agenda item

A presentation by the Assistant Director – Neighbourhoods

The Portfolio Holder Councillor Callum Butler introduced the report, with the Assistant Director for Neighbourhoods updating members with a presentation.

The Portfolio Holder advised members that Central Government were mandating that all local authorities undertake the collection of food waste separately from general waste from April 2026 under the Environment Act of 2020.  The move would have a huge impact on the Council’s waste collection service from the vehicles used to the how the waster would be collected.  The cost would be offset by Government funding initially, but the Council was still waiting further clarification, and officers had felt it best to provide a presentation on the proposal at the current time, as to what it would mean for residents and the Council.

The Assistant Director for Neighbourhoods advised that the Environment Act had introduced ‘simpler recycling’ which covered a provision of consistent collections of recycled material by all Councils in the country. Boston was consistent with that via the provision of the Blue Bin used for recycling.  However, the other stream introduced would be a weekly food waste collection to all households.

Extended Producer Responsibility was about packaging waste, so extended producer responsibility was changing the way that local authorities were being funded in the way that they collect and disposed of packaging and that's packaging, whether it's in the residual waste stream. So, any packaging waste that is in litter bins that the authority collects from.
The way that EPI would work would be that the local authorities would be paid be given a payment for the provision of efficient and effective services.
The producers of packaging would pay a would be obligated to pay a fee.
Simple recycling had been implemented for a number of reasons.  It would reduce confusion and make recycling easier because there is a requirement for producers to label all their packaging with whether it can or cannot be recycled and it would improve recycling rates. It would also enable the councilto produce a higher quality recycler and to some degree produce a higher quality of service.  It would also help to tackle the environment impacts of food and plastic waste, and also there was a real push to help grow the UK recycling industry.
In terms of the government's timeline, the arrangements for food waste were set out after significant consultation and the results of the consultation which had been published along with the secondary legislation.
The council had received capital funding of £728,646  to enable them to purchase vehicles and caddies in order to deliver food waste collections and further funding would follow, but local authorities are due to receive what's called transitional funding for food waste collections.
The council had to recycle all waste streams including those of businesses. so, businesses will have to recycle to. The transitional funding would meet the costs of communications engagement, everything you need to do to get ready for the implementation.   The Council would be procuring around 33,000 street caddies to be presented at the curb side and 33,000 kitchen cabbies.

Moving forward Cabinet would make their decision on food waste in January 2025 and then ICT would plan for the system changes in February 2025. Commercial food waste collections would begin in April 2024 with mobilisation (staffing, H&S, training and comms) to begin in September 2025.  pEPR payments were expected for year 1 in December 2025 with deliver of the containers and vehicles in January 2026.  The collection service to begin in April 2026.

Members were further advised that future updates on the progress of the new system would be provided for the committee.

Significant member commenting and questioning followed which included:

Concern was noted that the purple and blue bins were often contaminated resulting in them not being emptied and being left on the street side for a considerable time prior to them finally being emptied.  Food waste was a particular problem resulting in putrefying waste which impacted on neighbourhoods.   Further concern noted the width of some streets in the borough and a member questioned the use of narrower freighters to access bins on such kerbsides.

The Assistant Director advised that information from councils already providing the food waste collections, noted little contamination in the actual food receptors but agreed it was an issue to be considered moving forward and confirmed that when bins were contaminated, they were actioned quickly.  In respect of the freighters used to collect the waste, the Council was using narrower units, and Boston had its own smaller unit which was still in use accessing properties which were harder to reach.

There was agreement by members that residents needed to be educated on buying less products to reduce the waste and it was noted that once they viewed the amount of food waste they were throwing out, it would assist in realising the cost of food being throw away.

In response to a question in respect of communal bins, the Assistant Director advised that they would ensure that sufficient additional bins would be installed in compounds alongside the existing bins to guarantee capacity for the waste.

The Assistant Director also advised that that an independent body was in place to act as the scheme administrator.  Furthermore, no decision had been made in respect of extending the opening hours of the local recycling centre and referencing the provision of smaller bins for elder residents and single person households were being considered for both the residents’ benefit and to improve the street scene.

Referencing a query in respect of potential issues of vermin around the new bins, the Assistant Director advised that the bins had lids which locked which would prevent any access to the waste and the feedback from other councils using the system had been that vermin had not been an issue.  The bins would be emptied weekly so there would be no significant build up within them.

On questioning how residents would be encouraged to use the new system, which was not enforceable, The Assistant Director advised that there would be national promotion of the new regime, together with local promotion from comms part of which would be based on feedback from those already using the system and their findings.

The Chairman noted her thanks on behalf of all the committee members, for the detailed presentation provided and noted that future updates to the committee would be welcomed.  Overall, the committee were very supportive of the new system.